Unit roots in output, an exponential 2% rate of convergence and no change in the underlying dynamics of output seem to be three stylized facts that can not go together. This paper extends the Solow-Swan growth model allowing for cross-sectional heterogeneity. In this framework, aggregate shocks...

We claim that the stock market encourages business creation, innovation, and growth by allowing the recycling of "informed capital". Due to incentive and information problems, new start-ups face high flotation costs. Sustaining a tight relationship with a monitor allows them to postpone their...

The European Community and the US have experienced vastly different unemployment dynamics over the last two decades. This paper investigates whether these differences are due to exposure to different shocks or reacting differently to the same shocks. With the premise of a search theoretic...

It is well known from time series analysis that shocks to aggregate output have very persistent effects. This paper argues that the relation between the expected growth rate of a firm and its size\ provides a microfoundation for such aggregate persistence. The empirical evidence indicates that...

We document that the fraction of entrepreneurs who work in the region where they were born is significantly higher than the corresponding fraction for dependent workers. This difference is more pronounced in more developed regions and positively related to the degree of local financial...

We analyze how the financial conditions of the firm affect the compensation structure of workers, the size of the firm, and its dynamics. Firms that are financially constrained offer long-term wage contracts characterized by an increasing wage profile, that is,they pay lower wages today in...

Social contacts help workers to find jobs, but those jobs need not be in the occupations where workers are most productive. Hence social contacts can generate mismatch between a worker's occupational choice and his comparative productive advantage. Thus economies with dense social networks can...

We consider a labor market search model where, by working londer hours, individuals acquire greater skills and thereby obtain better jobs. We show that job inequality, which leads to within-skill wage differences, gives incentives to work longer hours. By contrast, a higher probability of losing...

We decompose the low-frequency movements in labour productivity into an investment-neutral and investment-specific technology component. We show that neutral technology shocks cause an increase in job creation and job destruction and lead to a reduction in aggregate employment....