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Journal Article
Interpreting procyclical productivity: evidence from a cross-nation cross-industry panel
We use an international panel data set of value added by industry to see if labor productivity is procyclical in response to demand shocks. It is: holding fixed our proxy for supply-side factors - the value added levels of an industry in other nations - industry-level productivity rises when value added in the rest of manufacturing rises. Moreover, increases in unemployment are associated with a lowered degree of procyclicality in Europe. This suggests that procyclical productivity arises primarily from "labor hoarding" by firms in the U.S. that wish to avoid future training costs and ...