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Misallocation, Establishment Size, and Productivity

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  • Pedro Bento
  • Diego Restuccia

Abstract

We consider a model of heterogeneous production units with endogenous entry and productivity investment to assess the quantitative impact of policy distortions: when the productivity elasticity of distortions increases from 0.09 in the United States to 0.5 in India, aggregate output and average establishment size fall by 53 and 86 percent (37 and 0 percent in the standard factor misallocation model). Entry productivity and factor misallocation contribute equally to the reduction in output, whereas lower life-cycle productivity growth is fully offset by increased entry and reduced productivity dispersion. Establishment size differences are consistent with evidence from a new comprehensive cross-country dataset.

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  • Pedro Bento & Diego Restuccia, 2017. "Misallocation, Establishment Size, and Productivity," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 267-303, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:9:y:2017:i:3:p:267-303
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/mac.20150281
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D92 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice, Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

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