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The Real Determinants of Asset Sales
Author(s) -
YANG LIU
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.2008.01396.x
Subject(s) - productivity , asset (computer security) , business cycle , business , falling (accident) , monetary economics , general equilibrium theory , economics , industrial organization , labour economics , microeconomics , macroeconomics , medicine , computer security , environmental health , computer science
I develop a dynamic structural model in which a firm makes rational decisions to buy or sell assets in the presence of productivity shocks. By identifying equilibrium asset prices, the model also examines the aggregate asset sales activity over the business cycle. It shows that changes in productivity, rather than productivity levels, affect decisions: Firms with rising productivity buy assets and firms with falling productivity downsize (“rising buys falling”). As such, industries in which firms have less persistent and more volatile productivity experience greater asset reallocation. Using plant‐level data from Longitudinal Research Database (LRD), I find strong support for the model's predictions.