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Increasing Returns, Labour Utilization and Externalities: Procyclical Productivity in the United States and Japan
Author(s) -
Vecchi Michela
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
economica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.532
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1468-0335
pISSN - 0013-0427
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0335.00205
Subject(s) - externality , economics , productivity , hoarding (animal behavior) , proxy (statistics) , labour economics , returns to scale , monetary economics , macroeconomics , production (economics) , ecology , foraging , machine learning , biology , computer science , microeconomics
This paper investigates procyclical productivity and attempts to discriminate among several competing explanations. The study focuses on the United States and Japan, since the different industrial relations in these two economies serve to cast a sharper light on the procyclical productivity debate. Labour hoarding, evaluated through the introduction of a labour utilization proxy, proves to be an important influence. The interpretation of the role of external economies remains an open issue.