The Cyclicality of Productivity Dispersion

The Dynamics of Establishment Productivity: Technology Transfer and Productivity Dispersion

This paper investigates the dynamics of Total Factor Productivity at the establishment level. We introduce technology transfer into a framework with heterogeneous firms and ongoing entry and exit. We find evidence that convergence to the frontier is statistically and quantitatively important. Foreign multinationals make up a significant proportion of establishments at the technological frontier...

The Cyclicality of Job-to-Job Transitions and Its Implications for Aggregate Productivity

This paper analyzes the job-to-job transitions of workers in the United States. I propose a new method of correcting the time-aggregation bias. The bias-corrected series from 1996 to 2011 reveals a procyclical pattern of job-to-job transition and a large decline since the beginning of the 2000s. I construct a model of on-the-job search and explore the implications of this phenomenon. The calibr...

Product Substitutability and Productivity Dispersion

Tremendous differences in producer productivity levels exist, even within narrowly defined industries. This paper explores the influence of product substitutability in an industry on this disparity. When consumers can easily switch between producers, relatively inefficient (highcost) producers cannot profitably operate. Thus high-substitutability industries should exhibit less productivity disp...

Why Has the Cyclicality of Productivity Changed? What Does It Mean?

Emission Tax or Standard? The Role of Productivity Dispersion

We use a general equilibrium model to address the question whether a regulatory emission standard or an emission tax yields higher societal welfare for any given target on aggregate emission. The key feature of the model is that the plants are heterogeneous in productivity and monopolistically competitive in the production of dirty-goods whose by-product is emission. We …nd that the standard yi...