Essays on Firm Dynamics and Macroeconomics

dc.contributor.advisorHaltiwanger, John Cen_US
dc.contributor.authorDecker, Ryan Allenen_US
dc.contributor.departmentEconomicsen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2015-09-18T05:35:50Z
dc.date.available2015-09-18T05:35:50Z
dc.date.issued2015en_US
dc.description.abstractI describe two studies in firm dynamics and macroeconomics. Chapter 1 reports on the large decline in entrepreneurial activity that preceded and accompanied the Great Recession and proposes a model relating this decline to the housing collapse. The collapse in entrepreneurial activity coincided with a historic decline in home values that preceded the onset of the broad recession by at least nine months. I describe a heterogeneous agent general equilibrium model with both housing and entrepreneurship. The model is characterized by financial frictions that affect both credit supply and credit demand. I consider the consequences of a “housing crisis” as compared to a “financial crisis.” The model produces a negative response of entrepreneurship to a housing crisis via a housing collateral channel; this mechanism can account for at least a quarter of the empirical decline in entrepreneurs’ share of activity. A financial crisis (which works through credit supply) has more nuanced effects, causing economic disruption that entices new low-productivity entrepreneurs into production. Chapter 2 describes a theory of endogenous firm-level risk over the business cycle based on endogenous firm market exposure. Firms that reach a larger number of markets diversify market-specific demand shocks at a cost. The model is driven only by total factor productivity shocks and captures the observed countercyclicality of firm-level risk. Consistent with the model, data from Compustat and the Longitudinal Business Database show that market reach is procyclical and that the countercyclicality of firm-level risk is driven mostly by those firms that adjust their market reach. This finding is explained by a negative elasticity between firm-level volatility and various measures of market exposure.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/M2J06W
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/16920
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEconomicsen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEntrepreneurshipen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledBusiness cycleen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledEntrepreneurshipen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledGreat Recessionen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledHousingen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledMacroeconomicsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledUncertaintyen_US
dc.titleEssays on Firm Dynamics and Macroeconomicsen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

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