RThis paper proposes a novel decomposition of aggregate productivity to evaluate the role of resource reallocation for the cyclical dynamics of aggregate productivity. The decomposition, which is derived from the aggregation of heterogeneous firm-level production functions, accounts for changes...

This article develops the relationships among real business cycle (RBC) theory, Austrian business cycle (ABC) theory, and Minsky's financial instability hypothesis (FIH). In RBC models, recessions are caused on the supply side by random technology shocks which are independent of monetary policy....

We study a labor market in which principals and agents must search for a trading partner, and agents have private information about the value of a match. We show that competitive pressure can induce agents to lie and over-state the value of the match. This leads to insufficient frictional...

Given the rapid rise and volatility of oil prices, the paper investigates the effect of oil price uncertainty on the South African manufacturing production using monthly observations covering the period 1974:02 to 2012:12. In addition, we quantify the responses of manufacturing production to...

This paper studies the productivity implications of the cyclical reallocation of capital. Frictions in the reallocation process are a source of factor misallocation. Cyclical movements in these frictions lead to variations in the degree of reallocation and thus in productivity. These frictions...

This paper revisits Schumpeterian destruction in a DSGE model based on monopolistic competition. Firms enter the market through a free entry condition and exit endogenously depending on their specific productivity level. The mechanism of endogenous destruction among heterogeneous firms is based...

Given the rapid rise and volatility of oil prices, the paper investigates the effect of oil price uncertainty on the South African manufacturing production using monthly observations covering the period 1974:02 to 2012:12. In addition, we quantify the responses of manufacturing production to...

This paper contributes to an emerging literature that brings the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) specification of the production function into the analysis of business cycle fluctuations. Using US data, we estimate by Bayesian methods a medium-sized DSGE model with a CES rather than...

This staff working paper (by Paula Barnes) examines multifactor productivity growth cycles at the industry level in Australia. There is considerable variation in industry-specific cycles across industries and the market sector. Moreover, the cycles chosen to examine industry MFP growth can have...

Using plant-level data, I show that the dispersion of total factor productivity in U.S. durable manufacturing is greater in recessions than in booms. This cyclical property of productivity dispersion is much less pronounced in non-durable manufacturing. In durables, this phenomenon primarily...