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The Role of Nonemployers in Business Dynamism and Aggregate Productivity

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  • Pedro Bento
  • Diego Restuccia

Abstract

The well-documented decline in business dynamism, measured in the literature by the net entry rate of employer firms, has been proposed as an explanation for the productivity growth slowdown in the United States. We assess the role of nonemployers, firms without paid employees, in business dynamism and aggregate productivity. Including nonemployers, the total number of firms has instead increased since the early 1980s, which in the context of a standard model of firm dynamics implies an average annual growth of aggregate productivity of 0.26%, one-quarter of the productivity growth in the data. Accounting for changes in the share of nonemployers and the firm size distribution over time, the increase in the total number of businesses implies an even higher productivity growth of 0.52% annually. The productivity growth slowdown is not due to changes in business dynamism.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Bento & Diego Restuccia, 2021. "The Role of Nonemployers in Business Dynamism and Aggregate Productivity," Working Papers tecipa-686, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-686
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Bento, Pedro & Restuccia, Diego, 2021. "On average establishment size across sectors and countries," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 220-242.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bento, Pedro & Hwang, Sunju, 2023. "Barriers to black entrepreneurship: Implications for welfare and aggregate output over time," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 16-34.
    2. Pedro Bento, 2021. "Trade without “scale effects”," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 1252-1274, November.
    3. Akcigit, Ufuk & Dinlersoz, Emin & Greenwood, Jeremy & Penciakova, Veronika, 2022. "Synergizing ventures," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    4. Pedro Bento, 2020. "Female Entrepreneurship in the U.S. 1982 - 2012: Implications for Welfare and Aggregate Output," Working Papers 20201201-001, Texas A&M University, Department of Economics.
    5. Bart Cockx & Sam Desiere, 2023. "Labour costs and the decision to hire the first employee," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 23/1071, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    6. Innessa Colaiacovo & Margaret Dalton & Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2022. "The Transformation of Self Employment," Working Papers 22-03, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    nonemployers; employer firms; business dynamism; productivity; TFP.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • E1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models

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