IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpio/9706002.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Stabilize Employment? Theoretical Considerations and Evidence from Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Frenkel

    (Georgetown University)

  • Ralf Fendel

    (Georgetown University)

Abstract

The hypothesis that the behavior of firms in adjusting the number of their employees along a business cycle depends on the size of the firms has often been mentioned in the literature. Several authors argue that small and medium sized enterprises are more hesitant in hiring additional employees in a boom situation but also do not offset workers as fast as big enterprises in a recession. This implies that small and medium-sized enterprises stabilize economy-wide employment. However, up to now there is hardly any theoretical support and only very limited empirical evidence for this view. This paper addresses these shortcomings and presents a theoretical framework for a size-specific behavior of firms in hiring and laying off workers. We argue that the main reason for the difference stems from the existence of sunk costs associated with changes in employment. We also examine the empirical evidence for the industrial sector in Germany. Our findings confirm the view of a smaller employment response of small and medium-sized enterprises to changes in economic activity.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Frenkel & Ralf Fendel, 1997. "Do Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Stabilize Employment? Theoretical Considerations and Evidence from Germany," Industrial Organization 9706002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:9706002
    Note: Type of Document - WordPerfect; prepared on IBM PC ; to print on HP Laserjet III; pages: 18 ; figures: included
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/io/papers/9706/9706002.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/io/papers/9706/9706002.html
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/io/papers/9706/9706002.ps.gz
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ben Abdallah, Skander & Lasserre, Pierre, 2016. "Asset retirement with infinitely repeated alternative replacements: Harvest age and species choice in forestry," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 144-164.
    2. Oscar Gutiérrez & Francisco Ruiz-Aliseda, 2011. "Real options with unknown-date events," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 171-198, May.
    3. Timothy Erickson & Toni M. Whited, 2000. "Measurement Error and the Relationship between Investment and q," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(5), pages 1027-1057, October.
    4. Arve, Malin & Zwart, Gijsbert, 2023. "Optimal procurement and investment in new technologies under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    5. Shively, Gerald E., 2001. "Price thresholds, price volatility, and the private costs of investment in a developing country grain market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 399-414, August.
    6. Marks, Phillipa & Marks, Brian, 2007. "Spectrum Allocation, Spectrum Commons and Public Goods: the Role of the Market," MPRA Paper 6785, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Stern, Nicholas, 2018. "Public economics as if time matters: Climate change and the dynamics of policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 4-17.
    8. Krause, M.U., 2002. "Inter-Industry Wage Differentials and Job Flows," Discussion Paper 2002-3, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    9. Wong, Kit Pong & Yi, Long, 2013. "Irreversibility, mean reversion, and investment timing," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 770-775.
    10. Pierre‐Richard Agénor, 2004. "Macroeconomic Adjustment and the Poor: Analytical Issues and Cross‐Country Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 351-408, July.
    11. Atal, Vidya & Bar, Talia & Gordon, Sidartha, 2016. "Project selection: Commitment and competition," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 30-48.
    12. Yonggu Kim & Keeyoung Shin & Joseph Ahn & Eul-Bum Lee, 2017. "Probabilistic Cash Flow-Based Optimal Investment Timing Using Two-Color Rainbow Options Valuation for Economic Sustainability Appraisement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-16, October.
    13. Bergendahl, Goran, 2005. "Models for investment in electronic commerce--financial perspectives with empirical evidence," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 363-376, August.
    14. Prelipcean, Gabriela & Boscoianu, Mircea, 2019. "Aspect Regarding the Design of Active Strategies for Venture Capital Financing – the Flexible Adjustment for Romania as a Frontier Capital Market," Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference (2019), Rovinj, Croatia, in: Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference, Rovinj, Croatia, 12-14 September 2019, pages 187-196, IRENET - Society for Advancing Innovation and Research in Economy, Zagreb.
    15. Wong, Kit Pong, 2011. "Progressive taxation and the intensity and timing of investment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 100-108, January.
    16. Chahim, M. & Hartl, R.F. & Kort, P.M., 2011. "The Deterministic Impulse Control Maximum Principle in Operations Research : Necessary and Sufficient Optimality Conditions (replaces CentER DP 2011-052)," Discussion Paper 2011-133, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    17. Unterschultz, James R., 2000. "New Instruments For Co-Ordination And Risk Sharing Within The Canadian Beef Industry," Project Report Series 24046, University of Alberta, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology.
    18. Waters, James, 2015. "Optimal design and consequences of financial disclosure regulation: a real options approach," MPRA Paper 63369, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Meade, Richard, 2006. "Valuing the Impact of Climate Change Policies on Forestry," Working Paper Series 19068, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    20. Yoon, Byung-Sam & Brorsen, B. Wade, 2005. "Can Multiyear Rollover Hedging Increase Mean Returns?," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 65-78, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Do Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Stabilize Employment? Theoretical Considerations and Evidence from Germany;

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:9706002. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: EconWPA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.