Job creation and job destruction in a transition economy: ownership

Comprehensive firm-level data for Polish manufacturing show that in state-owned firms the large drop in net employment since the start of the transition in 1990 has been driven by a jump in the job destruction rate; job creation, by contrast, is located disproportionately in the private sector. Small firms are more dynamic than large firms, but even after controlling for size, private firms have a higher net employment growth rate.