IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgfe/94-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Downsizing and productivity growth: myth or reality?

Author

Listed:
  • Martin N. Baily
  • Eric J. Bartelsman
  • John Haltiwanger

Abstract

The conventional wisdom is that the rising productivity in the U.S. manufacturing sector in the 1980s has been driven by the apparently pervasive downsizing over this period. Aggregate evidence clearly shows falling employment accompanying the rise in productivity. In this paper, we examine the microeconomic evidence using the plant level data from the Longitudinal Research Database (LRD). In contrast to the conventional wisdom, we find that plants that increased employment as well as productivity contribute almost as much to overall productivity growth in the 1980s as the plants that increased productivity at the expense of employment. Further, there are striking differences by sector (defined by industry, size, region, wages, and ownership type) in the allocation of plants in terms of whether they upsize or downsize and whether they increase or decrease productivity. Nevertheless, in spite of the striking differences across sectors defined in a variety of ways, most of the variance of productivity and employment growth is accounted for by idiosyncratic factors.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Martin N. Baily & Eric J. Bartelsman & John Haltiwanger, 1994. "Downsizing and productivity growth: myth or reality?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 94-7, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:94-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hellerstein, Judith K & Neumark, David, 1999. "Sex, Wages, and Productivity: An Empirical Analysis of Israeli Firm-Level Data," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(1), pages 95-123, February.
    2. Bernanke, Ben S & Parkinson, Martin L, 1991. "Procyclical Labor Productivity and Competing Theories of the Business Cycle: Some Evidence from Interwar U.S. Manufacturing Industries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 439-459, June.
    3. Alan Manning, 1992. "Productivity Growth, Wage Setting and the Equilibrium Rate of Unemployment," CEP Discussion Papers dp0063, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Fallick, Bruce Chelimsky, 1996. "The hiring of new labor by expanding industries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 25-42, August.
    5. Donald Siegel & Zvi Griliches, 1992. "Purchased Services, Outsourcing, Computers, and Productivity in Manufacturing," NBER Chapters, in: Output Measurement in the Service Sectors, pages 429-460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Robert J. Gordon, 1993. "The Jobless Recovery: Does It Signal a New Era of Productivity-led Growth?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 24(1), pages 271-316.
    7. Giuseppe Nicoletti & Lucrezia Reichlin, 1993. "Trends and Cycles in Labour Productivity in the Major OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 129, OECD Publishing.
    8. Nickell, S. & Komg, P., 1989. "Technical Progress And Jobs," Papers 366, London School of Economics - Centre for Labour Economics.
    9. Davis, Steven J & Haltiwanger, John & Schuh, Scott, 1996. "Small Business and Job Creation: Dissecting the Myth and Reassessing the Facts," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 297-315, August.
    10. Venables, Anthony J, 1985. "The Economic Implications of a Discrete Technical Change," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(2), pages 230-248, June.
    11. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 1992. "Gross Job Creation, Gross Job Destruction, and Employment Reallocation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 819-863.
    12. Aghion, Philippe & Howitt, Peter, 1991. "Unemployment : A symptom of stagnation or a side-effect of growth?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(2-3), pages 535-541, April.
    13. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1998. "Job Creation and Destruction," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262540932, April.
    14. Baldwin, John R. Harchaoui, Tarek, 2002. "Productivity Growth in Canada," Productivity Growth in Canada, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division, number stcb6e, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cho, Jang Hee & Chun, Hyun Bae & Lee, Yoonsoo & Yi, In Sill, 2015. "Job Creation, Destruction, and Regional Employment Growth: Evidence from Korean Establishment-level Data," KDI Journal of Economic Policy, Korea Development Institute (KDI), vol. 37(4), pages 55-74.
    2. Giovanni Gallipoli & Gianluigi Pelloni, 2013. "Macroeconomic Effects of Job Reallocations: A Survey," Review of Economic Analysis, Digital Initiatives at the University of Waterloo Library, vol. 5(2), pages 127-176, December.
    3. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 1998. "Measuring Gross Worker and Job Flows," NBER Chapters, in: Labor Statistics Measurement Issues, pages 77-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Gielen, Anne C. & van Ours, Jan C., 2006. "Age-specific cyclical effects in job reallocation and labor mobility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 493-504, August.
    5. Brown, W. Mark, 2004. "Renewing Canada's Manufacturing Economy: A Regional Comparison, 1973-1996," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2004023e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    6. Nathalie Greenan & Dominique Guellec, 2000. "Technological Innovation and Employment Reallocation," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 14(4), pages 547-590, December.
    7. Nikolaj Malchow-Møller & Bertel Schjerning & Anders Sørensen, 2011. "Entrepreneurship, job creation and wage growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 15-32, January.
    8. Catherine Armington & Alicia Robb & Zoltan J Acs, 1999. "Measures Of Job Flow Dynamics In The U.S.," Working Papers 99-1, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    9. Spletzer, James R, 2000. "The Contribution of Establishment Births and Deaths to Employment Growth," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 18(1), pages 113-126, January.
    10. MG. Ladu, 2005. "Total Factor Productivity Growth and Employment: A Simultaneous Equations Model Estimate," Working Paper CRENoS 200506, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    11. Zoltán J. Ács & Pamela Mueller, 2015. "Employment effects of business dynamics: Mice, Gazelles and Elephants," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 16, pages 304-319, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Martin-Barroso, David & Nuñez-Serrano, Juan Andres & Turrion, Jaime & Velazquez, Francisco J., 2011. "The European Map of Job Flows," MPRA Paper 33602, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2011.
    13. Umut Kılınç, 2018. "Productivity slowdown and misallocation in the post-recession: What prevents recovery?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(6), pages 1542-1570, December.
    14. Sonia Ruano, 2000. "Creación y destruccción bruta de empleo en las empresas industriales españolas," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 24(3), pages 563-584, September.
    15. Jim Malley & Anton Muscatelli & Ulrich Woitek, 1998. "The Interaction Between Business Cycles and Productivity Growth: Evidence from US Industrial Data," Working Papers 9805, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow, revised Oct 1998.
    16. repec:rim:rimwps:27-08 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. MG. Ladu, 2005. "Growth and Employment: A survey on the Demand Side of the Labour Market," Working Paper CRENoS 200507, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    18. Kugler, Adriana, 2000. "The Incidence of Job Security Regulations on Labor Market Flexibility and Compliance in Colombia: Evidence from the 1990 Reform," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 3267, Inter-American Development Bank.
    19. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Ricardo Lagos, 2007. "A Model of Job and Worker Flows," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 770-819, October.
    20. J. David Brown & John S. Earle, 2002. "Job Reallocation and Productivity Growth under Alternative Economic Systems and Policies: Evidence from the Soviet Transition," CERT Discussion Papers 0208, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    21. Oznur Ozdamar & Eleftherios Giovanis & Sahizer Samuk, 2020. "State business relations and the dynamics of job flows in Egypt and Turkey," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 519-558, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Downsizing of organizations; Productivity;

    JEL classification:

    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:94-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.