We show better-managed firms are more dynamic in plant acquisitions, disposals, openings, and closings in U.S. Census and international data. Better-managed firms also birth better-managed plants and improve the performance of the plants they acquire. To explain these findings, we build a model...

This paper examines the impact of monetary policy shocks on firm-level productivity across 32 emerging market economies from 2000 to 2023, using panel local projections and a comprehensive firm-level dataset. We identify exogenous monetary policy shocks using a forward-looking Taylor rule and...

We study the effects of place-based policies on aggregate productivity using administrative data on projects co-financed by the EU in Italy linked to balance sheet data. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in funding for a large place-based policy stemming from measurement error in regional...

This paper studies the relationship between market concentration and aggregate productivity when firmlevel demand emerges from past marketing investments. Granular firms may invest in demand both to complement their productivity and to amplify market power-this second force can create persistent...

15% of Danish workers account for 60% of unemployment. Are these workers unemployed more frequently because of their lower productivity or higher opportunity costs of employment? Using administrative data linking workers to their earnings, wealth, debt, health records, parental backgrounds,...

We estimate the impact of international standards certification on the export performance of firms in a developing economy using a unique panel data from Pakistan's textile and apparel sector. To address endogeneity, we implement a novel instrumental variable strategy that leverages the...

We study changes in job reallocation in Europe after 2000 using novel microaggregated data that we collected for 19 European countries. In all countries, we document broad-based declines in job reallocation rates that concern most economic sectors and size classes. These declines are mainly...

Although microenterprises are the most prevalent employer in Africa, boosting their productivity remains a development challenge. Theoretically, microenterprise business associations could foster technology, improve access to inputs, pool risk, ensure coordination, and facilitate credit for...

Since the onset of globalization, production activities have become increasingly fragmented and organized in global value chains, facilitating the trade of intermediaries across industries and countries. In this paper, we analyze the dynamic effect of increasing participation in global value...

Policies involving what are known as Free Economic Zones (FEZs) have been popular among countries interested in attracting foreign investment. While foreign investment has generally benefited the receiving country, the effect of market rivalry is known to reverse this impact. Our paper tests,...

Across many cultures, resting instead of working is viewed as a barrier to higher earnings. This belief is also reflected in many canonical economic models. Recent empirical evidence highlighting the productivity benefits of rest challenges this belief. Yet, existing work tends to ignore...

In this paper, the non-parametric frontier methodology (DEA) with input orientation, variable returns to scale, and the Malmquist productivity indices are used to study the level of national and regional efficiency and know the productive change of Spanish hotels in the period 2014-2021, after...

Performance pay has been shown to have important implications for worker and firm productivity. Although workers' skills may directly matter for the cost of effort to reach performance goals, surprisingly little is know about the heterogeneity in the effects of incentive pay across workers. In...