{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]],"date-time":"2026-06-17T18:34:09Z","timestamp":1781721249943,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]],"date-time":"2020-11-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1604275200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]],"date-time":"2020-11-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1604275200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"name":"James Martin 21st Century Foundation","award":["LC1213-006"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LC1213-006"]}]},{"name":"James Martin 21st Century Foundation","award":["LC1213-006"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LC1213-006"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100007695","name":"Institute for New Economic Thinking","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["INET12-9001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["INET12-9001"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100007695","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100007695","name":"Institute for New Economic Thinking","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["INET12-9001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["INET12-9001"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100007695","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["EPJ Data Sci."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>Using detailed administrative microdata for two countries, we build a modeling framework that yields new explanations for the origin of firm sizes, the firm contributions to unemployment, and the job-to-job mobility of workers between firms. Firms are organized as nodes in networks where connections represent low mobility barriers for workers. These labor flow networks are determined empirically, and serve as the substrate in which workers transition between jobs. We show that highly skewed firm size distributions are predicted from the connectivity of firms. Further, our model permits the reconceptualization of unemployment as a local network phenomenon related to both a notion of firm-specific unemployment and the network vicinity of each firm. We find that firm-specific unemployment has a highly skewed distribution. In coupling the study of job mobility and firm dynamics the model provides a new analytical tool for industrial organization and makes it possible to synthesize more targeted policies managing job mobility.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1140\/epjds\/s13688-020-00251-w","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]],"date-time":"2020-11-02T15:02:40Z","timestamp":1604329360000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["A network theory of inter-firm labor flows"],"prefix":"10.1140","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3940-2608","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eduardo","family":"L\u00f3pez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Omar A.","family":"Guerrero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robert L.","family":"Axtell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"251_CR1","volume-title":"The structure of social action, volume I","author":"T Parsons","year":"1937","unstructured":"Parsons T (1937) The structure of social action, volume I. Marshall, Pareto. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York"},{"key":"251_CR2","volume-title":"The Oxford handbook of analytical sociology","year":"2009","unstructured":"Hedstr\u00f6m P, Bearman P (eds) (2009) The Oxford handbook of analytical sociology Oxford University Press, Oxford"},{"issue":"6","key":"251_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1345","DOI":"10.2307\/1913386","volume":"50","author":"FE Kydland","year":"1982","unstructured":"Kydland FE, Prescott EC (1982) Time to build and aggregate fluctuations. Econometrica 50(6):1345\u20131370","journal-title":"Econometrica"},{"key":"251_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/3374.001.0001","volume-title":"Growing artificial societies","author":"JM Epstein","year":"1996","unstructured":"Epstein JM, Axtell RL (1996) Growing artificial societies. Brookings Institution Press & MIT Press, Washington Dc"},{"key":"251_CR5","volume-title":"The sciences of the artificial","author":"H Simon","year":"1996","unstructured":"Simon H (1996) The sciences of the artificial. MIT Press, Cambridge"},{"issue":"9","key":"251_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1748","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jedc.2010.06.018","volume":"34","author":"G Dosi","year":"2010","unstructured":"Dosi G, Fagiolo G, Roventini A (2010) Schumpeter meeting Keynes: a policy-friendly model of endogenous growth and business cycles. J Econ Dyn Control 34(9):1748\u20131767","journal-title":"J Econ Dyn Control"},{"key":"251_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"28","DOI":"10.1002\/poi3.136","volume":"9","author":"OA Guerrero","year":"2017","unstructured":"Guerrero OA, L\u00f3pez E (2017) Understanding unemployment in the era of big data: policy informed by data-driven theory. Policy Internet 9:28\u201354","journal-title":"Policy Internet"},{"key":"251_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"390","DOI":"10.1257\/jel.39.2.390","volume":"39","author":"B Petrongolo","year":"2001","unstructured":"Petrongolo B, Pissarides C (2001) Looking into the black box: a survey of the matching function. J Econ Lit 39:390\u2013431","journal-title":"J Econ Lit"},{"key":"251_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"397","DOI":"10.2307\/2297896","volume":"61","author":"D Mortensen","year":"1994","unstructured":"Mortensen D, Pissarides C (1994) Job creation and job destruction in the theory of unemployment. Rev Econ Stud 61:397\u2013415","journal-title":"Rev Econ Stud"},{"issue":"3","key":"251_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"733","DOI":"10.3982\/ECTA8769","volume":"79","author":"X Gabaix","year":"2011","unstructured":"Gabaix X (2011) The granular origins of aggregate fluctuations. Econometrica 79(3):733\u2013772","journal-title":"Econometrica"},{"issue":"11","key":"251_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3439","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.20130232","volume":"106","author":"L Garicano","year":"2016","unstructured":"Garicano L, Lelarge C, Van Reenen J (2016) Firm size distortions and the productivity distribution: evidence from France. Am Econ Rev 106(11):3439\u20133479","journal-title":"Am Econ Rev"},{"issue":"4","key":"251_CR12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"222","DOI":"10.1257\/mac.20140116","volume":"7","author":"R Barinchon","year":"2015","unstructured":"Barinchon R, Figura A (2015) Labor market heterogeneity and the aggregate matching function. Am Econ J Macroecon 7(4):222\u2013249","journal-title":"Am Econ J Macroecon"},{"key":"251_CR13","unstructured":"Maliranta M, Nikulainen T (2008) Labour force paths as industry linkages: a perspective on clusters and industry life cycles. ETLA Discussion Papers 1168"},{"key":"251_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0060808","author":"OA Guerrero","year":"2013","unstructured":"Guerrero OA, Axtell RL (2013) Employment growth through labor flow networks. PLoS ONE. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0060808","journal-title":"PLoS ONE"},{"key":"251_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"184","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jebo.2019.02.028","volume":"160","author":"RL Axtell","year":"2019","unstructured":"Axtell RL, Guerrero OA, L\u00f3pez E (2019) Frictional unemployment on labor flow networks. J Econ Behav Control 160:184\u2013201","journal-title":"J Econ Behav Control"},{"key":"251_CR16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-019-11380-w","volume":"10","author":"J Park","year":"2019","unstructured":"Park J, Wood IB, Jing E, Nematzadeh A, Ghosh S, Conover MD, Ahn Y-Y (2019) Global labor flow network reveals the hierarchical organization and dynamics of geo-industrial clusters in the world economy. Nat Commun 10:3449","journal-title":"Nat Commun"},{"issue":"13","key":"251_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5199","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1015564108","volume":"108","author":"E Atalay","year":"2011","unstructured":"Atalay E, Horta\u00e7su A, Roberts J, Syverson C (2011) Network structure of production. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108(13):5199\u20135202","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci USA"},{"key":"251_CR18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"288","DOI":"10.1016\/j.socnet.2013.02.005","volume":"35","author":"F Collet","year":"2013","unstructured":"Collet F, Hedstr\u00f6mb P (2013) Old friends and new acquaintances: tie formation mechanisms in an interorganizational network generated by employee mobility. Soc Netw 35:288\u2013299","journal-title":"Soc Netw"},{"key":"251_CR19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"9","DOI":"10.1016\/j.econlet.2015.08.009","volume":"136","author":"OA Guerrero","year":"2015","unstructured":"Guerrero OA, L\u00f3pez E (2015) Labor flows and the aggregate matching function: a network-based test using employer-employee matched records. Econ Lett 136:9\u201312","journal-title":"Econ Lett"},{"key":"251_CR20","first-page":"607","volume":"48","author":"HA Simon","year":"1958","unstructured":"Simon HA, Bonini CP (1958) The size distribution of business firms. Am Econ Rev 48:607\u2013617","journal-title":"Am Econ Rev"},{"key":"251_CR21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"804","DOI":"10.1038\/379804a0","volume":"379","author":"MHR Stanley","year":"1996","unstructured":"Stanley MHR, Amaral LAN, Buldyrev SV, Havlin S, Leschhorn H, Maass P, Salinger MA, Stanley HE (1996) Scaling behavior in the growth of companies. Nature 379:804\u2013806","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"251_CR22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1818","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1062081","volume":"293","author":"RL Axtell","year":"2001","unstructured":"Axtell RL (2001) Zipf distribution of U.S. firm sizes. Science 293:1818\u20131820","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"251_CR23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511761157","volume-title":"Econophysics and companies","author":"H Aoyama","year":"2010","unstructured":"Aoyama H, Fujiwara Y, Ikeda Y, Iyetomi H, Souma W (2010) Econophysics and companies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge"},{"issue":"4","key":"251_CR24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"950","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.1120.1582","volume":"59","author":"R Agarwal","year":"2012","unstructured":"Agarwal R, Ohyama A (2012) Industry or academia, basic or applied? Career choices and earnings trajectories of scientists. Manag Sci 59(4):950\u2013970","journal-title":"Manag Sci"},{"issue":"1","key":"251_CR25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"65","DOI":"10.1002\/smj.943","volume":"33","author":"BA Campbell","year":"2011","unstructured":"Campbell BA, Ganco M, Franco AM, Agarwal R (2011) Who leaves, where to, and why worry? Employee mobility, entrepreneurship and effects on source firm performance. Strateg Manag J 33(1):65\u201387","journal-title":"Strateg Manag J"},{"key":"251_CR26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"959","DOI":"10.1257\/002205105775362014","volume":"43","author":"R Rogerson","year":"2005","unstructured":"Rogerson R, Shimer R, Wright R (2005) Search-theoretic models of the labor market: a survey. J Econ Lit 43:959\u2013988","journal-title":"J Econ Lit"},{"key":"251_CR27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.4337\/9781848449107","volume-title":"The growth of firms. A survey of theories and empirical evidence","author":"A Coad","year":"2009","unstructured":"Coad A (2009) The growth of firms. A survey of theories and empirical evidence. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham Glos"},{"key":"251_CR28","volume-title":"Random processes and the growth of firms. A study of the Pareto law","author":"J Stendl","year":"1965","unstructured":"Stendl J (1965) Random processes and the growth of firms. A study of the Pareto law. Hafner, New York"},{"key":"251_CR29","volume-title":"Les in\u00e9galit\u00e9s economiques","author":"R Gibrat","year":"1931","unstructured":"Gibrat R (1931) Les in\u00e9galit\u00e9s economiques. Sirey, Paris"},{"key":"251_CR30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"739","DOI":"10.1162\/003355399556133","volume":"114","author":"X Gabaix","year":"1999","unstructured":"Gabaix X (1999) Zipf\u2019s law for cities: an explanation. Q J Econ 114:739\u2013767","journal-title":"Q J Econ"},{"key":"251_CR31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"602","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jet.2011.02.003","volume":"147","author":"EGJ Luttmer","year":"2012","unstructured":"Luttmer EGJ (2012) Technology diffusion and growth. J Econ Theory 147:602\u2013622","journal-title":"J Econ Theory"},{"key":"251_CR32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1360","DOI":"10.1086\/225469","volume":"78","author":"M Granovetter","year":"1973","unstructured":"Granovetter M (1973) The strength of weak ties. Am J Sociol 78:1360\u20131380","journal-title":"Am J Sociol"},{"issue":"3","key":"251_CR33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"426","DOI":"10.1257\/0002828041464542","volume":"94","author":"A Calvo-Armengol","year":"2004","unstructured":"Calvo-Armengol A, Jackson MO (2004) The effects of social networks on employment and inequality. Am Econ Rev 94(3):426\u2013454","journal-title":"Am Econ Rev"},{"key":"251_CR34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctvcm4gh1","volume-title":"Social and economic networks","author":"MO Jackson","year":"2010","unstructured":"Jackson MO (2010) Social and economic networks. Princeton University Press, Princeton"},{"key":"251_CR35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gianelle C (2011) Exploring the complex structure of labour mobility networks: evidence from Veneto microdata. WP2011 13","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.1939776"},{"key":"251_CR36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"346","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-03260-3_30","volume":"8238","author":"D Garlaschelli","year":"2013","unstructured":"Garlaschelli D, Ahnert SE, Fink TMA, Caldarelli G (2013) Optimal scales in weighted networks social informatics. Lect Notes Comput Sci 8238: 346\u2013359","journal-title":"Lect Notes Comput Sci"},{"key":"251_CR37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"381","DOI":"10.1145\/358669.358692","volume":"24","author":"M Fischler","year":"1981","unstructured":"Fischler M, Bolles R (1981) Random sample consensus: a paradigm for model fitting with applications to image analysis and automated cartography. Commun ACM 24:381\u2013395","journal-title":"Commun ACM"},{"key":"251_CR38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevE.74.055101","volume":"74","author":"MA Serrano","year":"2006","unstructured":"Serrano MA, Bogu\u00f1\u00e1 M, Pastor-Satorras R (2006) Correlations in weighted networks. Phys Rev E 74:055101","journal-title":"Phys Rev E"},{"key":"251_CR39","volume-title":"Linear algebra","author":"K Hoffman","year":"1971","unstructured":"Hoffman K, Kunze R (1971) Linear algebra, 2nd edn. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River","edition":"2"}],"container-title":["EPJ Data Science"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1140\/epjds\/s13688-020-00251-w.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1140\/epjds\/s13688-020-00251-w\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1140\/epjds\/s13688-020-00251-w.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,11]],"date-time":"2023-10-11T05:49:14Z","timestamp":1697003354000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/epjdatascience.springeropen.com\/articles\/10.1140\/epjds\/s13688-020-00251-w"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]]},"references-count":39,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12]]}},"alternative-id":["251"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1140\/epjds\/s13688-020-00251-w","relation":{},"ISSN":["2193-1127"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2193-1127","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]]},"assertion":[{"value":"21 February 2018","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"12 October 2020","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"2 November 2020","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"The authors declare that they have no competing interests.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"33"}}