Productivity Growth and the Effects of Recessions

The aim of this paper is to study the main determinants of the productivity growth and its interaction with the business cycle. In particular we investigate which variables are responsible for productivity growth and if recessions are associated with a higher or lower pace of productivity improving activities. The results we obtained seem to suggest that i) recessions would be beneficial for productivity growth only if they are transitory and ii) the low explanatory capability of supply variables may be due to the difficulties in matching complex phenomena to very aggregated data. Our conclusion is that due to the embodiment of the technology in capital goods, skills and the organization of work, technology itself usually requires a reallocation of factors of production that is costly to the firm, and such adjustment episodes are often times of crises, during which the opportunity cost of introducing innovation is lower.