Firm Size Distribution; Firm Growth; Gibrat Law; Fat Tails; Productivity; Market Selection.

L11; D21; C14; O30.

The work analyses the properties of corporate growth in a large longitudinal sample of Italian manufacturing firms. In particular, it focuses on the study of the statistical properties of growths rates and on the influence of proxies fro relative efficiency upon relative growth. In line with Bottazzi et al. (2001), the emergence of "fat tails" in growth rates distribution and the idiosyncratic nature of autocorrelation coefficients confirm the existence of a structure in the growth process richer then the one normally assumed by the "Gibrat Law" hypothesis and suggest the presence of firm-specific drivers of growth. At the same time, one finds remarkable puzzles concerning the absence of any negative relationship between size and growth variance and only weak influences of relative efficiencies upon growth dynamics.