The cost of recessions revisited: A reverse-liquidationist view

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Caballero, RJ; Hammour, ML
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-937X.2005.00334.x
• 发表日期: 2005
• 页码: 313-341
• 关键词: job destruction; AGENCY COSTS; net worth; GROWTH

摘要

The observation that liquidations are concentrated in recessions has long been the subject of controversy. One view holds that liquidations are beneficial in that they result in increased restructuring. Another view holds that this rise in restructuring is costly since liquidations are privately inefficient and essentially wasteful. This paper proposes an alternative perspective. On the basis of a combination of theory with empirical evidence on gross job flows and on financial and labour market rents, we find that, cumulatively, recessions result in reduced rather than increased restructuring, and that this is likely to be socially costly once we consider inefficiencies on both the creation and destruction margins.