東京大学政策評価研究教育センター

CREPEDP-167

Number CREPEDP-167
Publication Date February 2025; revised in February 2026
Title Delayed Network Formation of Young Firms: Micro Estimates and Macro Consequences
Authors Hiroyuki Asai and Makoto Nirei
Abstract This paper documents the delayed network formation of young firms and quantifies its macroeconomic consequences. Leveraging Japanese firm-to-firm transaction data, we show that young firms accumulate supplier and buyer relationships only gradually after entry, even controlling for standard age-related growth determinants. A calibrated general equilibrium model incorporating firms’ network-formation decisions reveals age-decaying networking wedges that raise entrants’ effective supplier- and buyeracquisition costs by 23% and 9%, respectively. Eliminating these wedges removes the post-entry networking delay, raises welfare and entry. Yet average partners per firm can fall: increased firm mass compresses average firm scale and reduces the return from each link. and restructuring supply chains in the economy.
Keywords Production Networks, Firm Dynamics, Misallocation
Other information Paper in English (40 pages)