A Reputational Theory of Firm Dynamics†

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Board, Simon; Meyer-ter-vehn, Moritz
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20190376
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 44-80
• 关键词: information; QUALITY; CHOICE; EVOLUTION; MARKET

摘要

We study the life cycle of a firm that produces a good of unknown quality. The firm manages its quality by investing while consumers learn via public breakthroughs; if the firm fails to generate such breakthroughs, its revenue falls and it eventually exits. Optimal investment depends on the firm???s reputation (the market???s belief about its quality) and self-esteem (the firm???s own belief about its quality), and is single-peaked in the time since a breakthrough. We derive predictions about the distribution of revenue and propose a method to decompose the impact of policy changes into investment and selection effects. (JEL D11, D21, D25, D83, G31, L15)