Research

Concentrated Risk: Misallocation and Granular Business Cycles

Working paper version (Sept. 2024 version)

Presentations: MMM fall 2024

Kent-Bristol-BoE Workshop on Firm Dynamics 2024

Slides for older versions: EWMES 2023 Tel Aviv University

The amplification capacity of micro-shocks into the macroeconomy

Abstract

This paper uncovers a novel interaction between production efficiency and economic stability. Using a tractable heterogeneous firms model, I prove the existence of an efficiency-stability trade-off in granular economies. Specifically, reducing misallocation increases business cycle volatility. This trade-off originates because firms choose their optimal size without internalizing their effect on aggregate consumption risk. Utilizing approximations and results on order statistics, I propose a tractable method to quantify this effect and show that commonly studied misallocation counterfactuals involve a sizeable increase in business cycle volatility. I discuss how different assumptions on the nature of misallocation and factor mobility influence this result.


The wealth distribution by race

Abstract

Entrepreneurship promotes wealth accumulation. However, Black households face significant barriers, operating fewer and smaller businesses compared to White households. We propose and evaluate a general equilibrium model of entrepreneurship choice and wealth accumulation in which Black households experience adverse distortions as entrepreneurs and workers, both affecting entrepreneurship choice. We discipline the model using U.S. microdata, and find that it matches well the observed racial wealth gap and the correlation between wealth and entrepreneurship. We find that distortions faced by Black entrepreneurs are the key factor for understanding the average racial wealth gap and play a significant role in determining the median gap. Our analysis also indicates that addressing racial disparities in the U.S. can substantially increase output.


Time to Say Goodbye: The Macroeconomic implications of Termination Notice

Conditionally accepted for publication at AEJ:macro

Working paper version - including the online appendices: Most recent version Jan. 2024 (first version Nov. 2020), Slides for CFM WP

Barcelona Summer Forum 2023   AEA 2024

Estimation results from Appendix G.3 - data

Welfare effects of changing insurance composition from UIB to termination notice

Abstract

Insuring households against unemployment risk is a cornerstone of modern economic policy. Many countries provide unemployment insurance partly by employment protection mandates, most commonly using termination notice mandates. Unlike unemployment insurance benefits, termination notices can stimulate search effort by the unemployed. I formalize this idea using a calibrated heterogeneous agents model, show how termination notice alters the incentives of firms and workers and study the insurance role of a termination notice in general equilibrium. I demonstrate how termination notice mandates and unemployment insurance benefits are complementary policies. Finally, I also compare between termination notice and severance pay.


Firing Restrictions and Economic Resilience: Protect and Survive? 

with Nadav Ben Zeev

Full paper , 3 slide highlights (old title) - from SOLE 2020, online appendix, replication codes

Review of Economic Dynamics, 2022

Impulse Responses to a One Standard Deviation Credit Supply Shock by Strictness of Employment Protection (EPL) - OECD economies

Abstract

Firing restrictions are in use throughout the developed world but their role in the transmission of macroeconomic shocks into the real economy is mostly unstudied. We illustrate the theoretical role of these policies as amplifiers of macroeconomic shocks via labor-misallocation-induced output losses following an adverse shock. We use our model to derive an aggregation result which features a labor misallocation term and conduct a simulation exercise which demonstrates how misallocation can drive total factor productivity (TFP) down during recessions. We then perform a quasi-natural experiment which utilizes global credit supply shocks to study this amplifying role using a panel of 21 OECD economies. We show that strict firing restrictions are associated with a weaker initial response of the labor market, which is followed by a stronger and more persistent decline in real output as well as a slower return of real activity to pre-shock levels. The stronger output decline can be mostly explained by a stronger fall in aggregate TFP, which supports our theoretical predictions.

Works in Progress