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Using linked employer-employee data to investigate the speed of adjustments in downsizing firms

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  • Kevin McKinney
  • Lars Vilhuber

Abstract

When firms are faced with a demand shock, adjustment can take many forms. Firms can adjust physical capital, human capital, or both. The speed of adjustment may differ as well: costs of adjustment, the type of shock, the legal and economic enviroment all matter. In this paper, we focus on firms that downsized between 1992 and 1997, but ultimately survive, and investigate how the human capital distribution within a firm influences the speed of adjustment, ceteris paribus. In other words, when do firms use mass layoffs instead of attrition to adjust the level of employment. We combine worker-level wage records and measures of human capital with firm-level characteristics of the production function, and use levels and changes in these variables to characterize the choice of adjustment method and speed. Firms are described/compared up to 9 years prior to death. We also consider how workers fare after leaving downsizing firms, and analyze if observed differences in post-separation outcomes of workers provide clues to the choice of adjustment speed.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin McKinney & Lars Vilhuber, 2006. "Using linked employer-employee data to investigate the speed of adjustments in downsizing firms," Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Technical Papers 2006-03, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:tpaper:2006-03
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bruce Fallick & John Haltiwanger & Erika McEntarfer, 2012. "Job-to-job flows and the consequences of job separations," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2012-73, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    2. Fredrik Andersson & John C. Haltiwanger & Mark J. Kutzbach & Henry O. Pollakowski & Daniel H. Weinberg, 2018. "Job Displacement and the Duration of Joblessness: The Role of Spatial Mismatch," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(2), pages 203-218, May.
    3. Elizabeth Weber Handwerker & Lowell Mason, 2018. "What Happens to the Employers Involved in Mass Layoffs?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(2), pages 485-507, October.
    4. Sebastien Lechevalier & Cyrille Dossougoin & Christophe Hurlin & Satoko Takaoka, 2014. "How did the Japanese Employment System Change?Investigating the Heterogeneity of Downsizing Practices across Firms," KIER Working Papers 883, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.

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