ex-ante appropriate (good) institutions may appear to be bad ex-post as they make economies vulnerable to shocks such as turbulence. As an example, the firing restrictions in Europe and Japan, which appear to be an inefficient institution ex-post, may have been a part of an efficient arrangement...

Output falls during emerging market financial crises are large. These declines are not explained by declines in the supply of factors of production, and are hence measured as declines in total factor productivity. Why does productivity decline during a crisis? This paper uses establishment level...