Survival of the fittest or does size matter: What are the main drivers of Productivity in Brazil?

This article aims to explore learning and selection effects of productivity change for three classes of firm’s sizes in Brazilian manufacturing and service sectors from 1996 to 2011. The methodology is based on the Price Equation. Our results support the international evidence about the weak intensity of the selection effect to explain aggregate productivity change for medium and large size firms. Small firms, however, are much more affected. Besides, size, measured by number of employees, appears to be a good proxy for capital intensity. There are as well signs that the learning effect is highly correlated with the economic cycle.