Does Firm Age Affect Profitability? Evidence From Turkey

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of firm age on the profitability of Turkish firms listed on Borsa Istanbul. Using a dataset covering the years between 2005 and 2014 and consisting of 302 non-financial firms per year on the average a fixed effects model with robust standard errors is estimated. Results reveal that there is a negative and convex relationship between firm age and profitability measured by return on assets return on equity or gross profit margin. This suggests that younger firms start to see a decline in their profitability from the beginning but they may become profitable again at an old age. Implications are provided.