Firm-level intra-industry links in Croatia’s tourism industry

In this paper we investigate firm level activity in Croatian tourism industry. Our analysis is based on the sample of more than 10,000 firms obtained from Bureau van Dijk database for the period 2006-2015. Theoretical basis of our paper is the Gibrat’s law, which states that firm size and growth rate are independent of each other. Within tourism industry, we differentiate between supporting divisions and the main industry division (accommodation industry), and test the Law on firms in supporting divisions using modified hybrid estimator. In that way, we add to the existing field of knowledge in two ways: through analysis and quantification of intra-industry links within the Law’s framework and by employing hybrid estimator originally developed by Mundlak, which is a novelty in this field of research. Although, our findings do not confirm the Law, we are able to discern supporting tourism industry divisions whose growth is highly determined by the growth of accommodation industry.