Asymmetric Firm Dynamics under Rational Inattention

We document new evidence on the link between business failures, markups and business cycle asymmetry in the U.S. economy. We study a model where costly information-processing constraints affect exit decisions of heterogeneous firms in the presence of an aggregate demand externality. We show that such a model is capable of explaining both the novel and the classical empirical evidence on output growth asymmetry, the asymmetry between entry and exit rates, as well as counter-cyclical variations in profit margins.