Description

As from issue number 50, the Series of Economic Studies of the Central Bank of Chile will be called Studies in Economic Statistics.

Traditionally, in the context of Chilean development policy, sales have been the criterion to stratify firms. This criterion introduces a significant volatility to the firms that make up each stratum and difficult the comparison with other OECD countries that stratify according to the number of employees. This document compares the characterization of the formal non-financial firms under both criterions based on the annual income declaration for the period 2008-2011. The outcome show that under the number of employees criterion, micro, small and medium firms represent a larger share of the total number of firms and are responsible for a larger share of production and employment. Also, under this criterion, when compared with a sample of 23 OECD countries, Chile presents a medium-low participation of small and medium firms in the total number of firms, value added and employment.