In this study, we review the studies on the relation between firms’ efficiency or profitability and their exit. Although we take it for granted that inefficient or unprofitable firms are more likely to exit, which we call the natural selection hypothesis, some theories predict that it is not...

This paper empirically investigates whether Japanese banks followed herd behavior as a result of financial deregulation in the 1980s, and whether any observed herd behavior brought about inefficiencies that could have caused macroeconomic fluctuations. Using loan-portfolio data, the paper...