American Economics Association
AEA Logo


American Economic Review


Search:






Quick Tools:

View Full Text of This Article

Link to Data Set

Link to Appendix

Email Link to this Article

Export Citation

Sign up for Email Alerts

Explore:

AER - Previous Issues

AER - March 2008

American Economic Review

Vol. 98, No. 1, March 2008


Reallocation, Firm Turnover, and Efficiency: Selection on Productivity or Profitability?
Lucia Foster, John Haltiwanger and Chad Syverson

Article Citation
Foster, Lucia, John Haltiwanger, and Chad Syverson. 2008. "Reallocation, Firm Turnover, and Efficiency: Selection on Productivity or Profitability?" American Economic Review, 98(1): 394–425.
DOI:10.1257/aer.98.1.394

Abstract
We investigate the nature of selection and productivity growth in industries where we observe producer-level quantities and prices separately. We show there are important differences between revenue and physical productivity. Because physical productivity is inversely correlated with price while revenue productivity is positively correlated with price, previous work linking (revenue- based) productivity to survival confounded the separate and opposing effects of technical efficiency and demand on survival, understating the true impacts of both. Further, we find that young producers charge lower prices than incumbents. Thus the literature understates new producers' productivity advantages and entry's contribution to aggregate productivity growth. (JEL D24, L11, L25)

Article Full-Text Access
Full-Text Article

Additional Materials
Link to Data Set | Link to Appendix



Authors
Foster, Lucia (Center for Economic Studies, US Bureau of the Census)
Haltiwanger, John (U MD)
Syverson, Chad (U Chicago)

JEL Classifications
D24: Production; Cost; Capital and Total Factor Productivity; Capacity
L11: Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
L25: Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope