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The temporary shutdown decision: Lessons from the Great Recession
Author(s) -
Brown James R.,
Carpenter Robert E.,
Petersen Bruce C.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
managerial and decision economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.288
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-1468
pISSN - 0143-6570
DOI - 10.1002/mde.3040
Subject(s) - shutdown , recession , harm , revenue , economics , business , production (economics) , finance , microeconomics , engineering , macroeconomics , nuclear engineering , political science , law
The temporary shutdown condition provides guidance on dealing with a serious transitory downturn in demand. The traditional condition says managers should stop production when revenues fall below avoidable costs. This condition is flawed because it ignores how lost human capital and reputational damage harm future profits. As a consequence, firms may optimally operate with losses far larger than stipulated by the traditional condition. We provide the first broad empirical analysis of the temporary shutdown decision, focusing on the Great Recession. We show that large operating losses were common and temporary shutdowns were exceedingly rare, even among very small public firms.