Firms' growth in frictional markets.

Summary This thesis is in the fields of international economics and labor economics, and focuses on firm growth. Firm dynamics play a key role in determining aggregate outcomes. Understanding how firms grow is therefore critical to understanding economic growth, innovation, and the functioning of the labor market. Frictions, both in the goods market and in the labor market, are one of the factors slowing down the growth of firms. On the one hand, informational and contractual frictions between sellers and buyers prevent firms from acquiring new buyers. On the other hand, labor market frictions, by increasing the costs of hiring and firing workers, limit the efficient reallocation of workers across firms, which slows the growth of firms in domestic and foreign markets. This thesis analyzes the impact of these two types of frictions on firm growth and survival.The first chapter identifies the causal impact of poaching salespeople from rival firms on a firm's ability to grow its international customer portfolio. The final two chapters focus on the effect of labor market frictions, and specifically the effect of labor market policies, on firm growth and survival. The second chapter describes judicial bias in labor courts and how it can affect the growth prospects of sued firms. The third chapter deals with industry agreements and highlights a mechanism by which large firms can use industry bargaining as an anticompetitive device.