We characterize the degree of microeconomic inflexibility in several Latin American economies and find that Brazil, Chile and Colombia are more flexible than Mexico and Venezuela. The difference in flexibility among these economies is mainly explained by the behavior of large establishments, which adjust more promptly in the more flexible economies, especially when accumulated shocks are substantial. We also study the path of flexibility in Chile and show that it declined in the aftermath of the Asian crisis. This decline can account for a substantial fraction of the large decline in TFP-growth in Chile since 1997 (from 3.1 percent per year for the preceding decade, to about 0.3 percent after that). Moreover, if it were to persist, it could permanently shave off almost half of a percent from Chile's structural rate of growth.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
10398.
Length: Date of creation: Mar 2004 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10398
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Find related papers by JEL classification: E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
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Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Andrei Shleifer & Juan Botero, 2003.
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Raphael Bergoeing & Norman Loayzaw & Andrea Repetto, 2004.
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Raphael Bergoeing & Norman Loayza & Andrea Repetto, 2004.
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William Maloney & Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 2005.
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