Full Citation

Title: ESSAYS ON FIRM-LEVEL DISTORTIONS AND AGGREGATE PRODUCTIVITY

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2021

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Abstract: This thesis focuses on how the frictions at the firm-level production decisions impact aggregate productivity. The first chapter quantifies the impact of trade secret protection on labor outsourcing, and consequently, on aggregate productivity. First, using event studies and differences-in-differences around the staggered adoption of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, I show that better trade secret protection leads to increased outsourcing. Second, to quantify the resulting gains in productivity, I build a structural model of outsourcing and multi-industry dynamics and estimate it with data from the U.S. manufacturing sector. I decompose the cross-state differences in labor outsourcing into differences in firing cost, industry composition, demand volatility, and trade secret protection. Strengthening trade secret protection for all states to match the state with the strictest protection would increase the outsourcing employment by 29% and aggregate output by 0.8%. iv

Url: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2533160567?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Bostanci, Gorkem

Institution: University of Pennsylvania

Department: Economics

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Publisher Location: Philadelphia

Pages: 1-220

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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