Profit Persistence in the "Very" Long Run: Evidence from Survivors and Exiters

One of the main shortcomings of the profit persistence literature is the fact that it looks only at surviving companies. This paper uses a unique dataset to analyse profit persistence in two different samples of stationary series: 85 surviving US companies from 1950 to 1999 and 72 exiters. While the exiters perform more competitively than the survivors there is still significant evidence for profit persistence in both samples. Concentration and growth of the industry as well as size and volatility of profits seem to play an important role in explaining persistence.