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Product Switching and the Business Cycle

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  • Andrew B. BERNARD
  • OKUBO Toshihiro

Abstract

This paper explores the role of product adding and dropping within manufacturing firms over the business cycle. While a substantial body of work has explored the importance of the extensive margins of firm entry and exit in employment and output flows, only recently has research begun to examine the adjustment across products within firms and its importance for firm and aggregate output and employment flows. Using a novel, annual firm-product data set covering all Japanese manufacturing firms with more than four employees from 1992 to 2006, we provide the first evidence on annual changes in product adding and dropping by continuing firms over the business cycle. We find very high rates of product adding and dropping by continuing firms between the last year of the recession and the first year of the subsequent expansion and offer an explanation and supporting evidence based on a "trapped factors" model of firm behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew B. BERNARD & OKUBO Toshihiro, 2015. "Product Switching and the Business Cycle," Discussion papers 15103, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:15103
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    Cited by:

    1. Flora Bellone & Cilem Selin Hazir & Toshiyuki Matsuura, 2020. "Adjusting to China competition: Evidence from Japanese plant-product-level data," Working Papers hal-03086387, HAL.
    2. Forslid, Rikard & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2023. "Trade, location, and multi-product firms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Philippe Aghion & Nicholas Bloom & Brian Lucking & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2021. "Turbulence, Firm Decentralization, and Growth in Bad Times," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 133-169, January.
    4. Carsten Eckel & Stephen R. Yeaple, 2023. "Inefficient Labor Market Sorting," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 437, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    5. Nicholas Bloom & Paul Romer & Stephen J Terry & John Van Reenen, 2021. "Trapped Factors and China’s Impact on Global Growth [Competition and innovation: an inverted-U relationship]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 156-191.
    6. OKUBO Toshihiro, 2021. "Foreign Direct Investment in China and Domestic Activities of Japanese Firms," Discussion papers 21023, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    7. HAMANO Masashige & OKUBO Toshihiro, 2023. "Product Dynamics and Macroeconomic Shocks: Insights from a DSGE model and Japanese data," Discussion papers 23045, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Apoorva Gupta, 2019. "R&D and firm resilience during bad times," Discussion Papers 2019-12, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    9. OKUBO Toshihiro & Kirill BORUSYAK, 2016. "Intra-Firm Linkages in Multi-Segment Firms: Evidence from the Japanese manufacturing sector," Discussion papers 16001, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    10. Kuosmanen, Natalia & Maczulskij, Terhi, 2022. "The Role of Firm Dynamics in the Green Transition: Carbon Productivity Decomposition in Finnish Manufacturing," ETLA Working Papers 99, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    11. Flora Bellone & Cilem Selin Hazir & Toshiyuki Matsuura, 2022. "Adjusting to China competition: Evidence from Japanese plant‐product‐level data," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 732-763, August.
    12. Cameron LAPOINT & SAKABE Shogo, 2021. "Place-Based Policies and the Geography of Corporate Investment," Discussion papers 21059, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    13. Agnes Kügler & Klaus Friesenbichler & Jürgen Janger, 2023. "Innovationen und Investitionen österreichischer Unternehmen in der Krise," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 70681, April.
    14. Masashige Hamano & Keita Oikawa, 2022. "Multi-Product Establishments and Product Dynamics," Working Papers e168, Tokyo Center for Economic Research.
    15. Argente, David & Lee, Munseob & Moreira, Sara, 2018. "Innovation and product reallocation in the great recession," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-20.
    16. Gupta, Apoorva, 2020. "R&D and firm resilience during bad times," DICE Discussion Papers 352, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    17. Ako Viou Bahun-Wilson, 2022. "On the Role of Product Quality in Product Reallocation and Macroeconomic Dynamics," Cahiers de recherche 22-01, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    18. Yuping Deng & Yanrui Wu & Helian Xu, 2019. "Environmental Regulation and Export Product Quality: Evidence from Chinese Firms," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 19-14, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    19. MIYAGAWA Tsutomu & EDAMURA Kazuma & KAWAKAMI Atsushi, 2017. "R&D and Product Dynamics," Discussion papers 17101, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General

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