This paper studies the importance of establishment size for the German/US labour-productivity gap in manufacturing at the start of the twentieth century. First, we show that the left tail of the employment distribution by establishment size was larger in Germany than in the USA. Second, using US state data for 1909, we find a positive correlation between establishment size and labour productivity. Third, imposing the coefficients of these estimates on establishment-size differences between Germany and the USA, we calculate that a redistribution of German employment to larger establishments, as in the USA, reduces the labour-productivity gap by about 25 per cent.

中文翻译：

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两条尾巴的故事：20 世纪初美国和德国制造业的企业规模和劳动生产率

本文研究了企业规模对 20 世纪初德国/美国制造业劳动生产率差距的重要性。首先，我们表明德国按机构规模划分的就业分布的左尾大于美国。其次，使用美国 1909 年的州数据，我们发现企业规模与劳动生产率之间存在正相关关系。第三，将这些估计系数应用于德国和美国之间的机构规模差异，我们计算出德国就业重新分配到更大的机构，如在美国，可以将劳动生产率差距缩小约 25%。