Using a dataset obtained by matching and merging three major databases, this paper investigates the impact of counterfeiting on firm survival in a sample of Italian manufacturing firms established between 2004-2006. This paper contributes to the literature on firm survival, which has identified firm-level characteristics, macroeconomic conditions and institutional features as key contributing factors to growth and survival probability among firms. The topic is hugely significant since this illegal competition may displace and damage the firms that produce genuine products. Overall, our analysis finds that the presence of counterfeit products negatively affects the chances of firms surviving. Moreover, after performing an in-depth analysis, we find that the presence of counterfeit products affects firms operating in lower tech sectors and smaller in size. Our evidence, which is robust to an alternative measure of counterfeiting and different estimation methods, provides room for policy interventions.

本文使用通过匹配和合并三个主要数据库获得的数据集，以 2004 年至 2006 年间成立的意大利制造企业为样本，调查了假冒行为对企业生存的影响。本文为有关企业生存的文献做出了贡献，该文献将企业层面的特征、宏观经济条件和制度特征确定为企业增长和生存概率的关键影响因素。这个话题非常重要，因为这种非法竞争可能会取代并损害生产正品的公司。总体而言，我们的分析发现假冒产品的存在会对企业的生存机会产生负面影响。此外，在进行深入分析后，我们发现假冒产品的存在影响了技术含量较低且规模较小的公司。我们的证据对于假冒的替代衡量方法和不同的估计方法是强有力的，为政策干预提供了空间。