Heterogeneity and Adjustment: Fixed Costs, Renovation, and Diffusion of Ideas - An Accomplishment Based Renewal

忽视微观经济世界的热情本质和其中的问题，可能会严重妨碍我们对一些核心问题给出有意义的定量——有时甚至是定性——答案的能力，这些问题包括：衰退的成本是什么？金融和契约因素如何阻碍总体经济表现？自然失业率是多少？在结构调整之后，什么是“合理”的就业损失和失业水平？成本是什么？为什么有些国家会出现技术僵化？为什么在处于相似发展阶段的经济体之间，生产方法（如资本/劳动力比率）差异如此之大？为什么有些国家建立的社会制度后来被认为是灵活调整的障碍？为什么拥有廉价劳动力的贫穷国家往往无法吸引资本并实现增长？投资激励的可能影响是什么？工人们会从这些激励措施中受益吗？为什么资本流动如此不稳定？在货币和系统危机期间，应如何管理国际流动性？等等......。本项目的目的是解决其中的一些问题，并提供一个宏观经济分析框架，该框架建立在对微观经济制度和行为的现实描述之上。这个项目包含三个紧密相连的主题。首先是个体微观经济决策（其中许多是间歇性的）与总体经济活动之间的联系。本项目开发并应用了一种方法装置，旨在跟踪总体冲击对潜在横截面分布的影响，反之亦然。其次是微观经济决策、经济结构调整和宏观动态之间的关系。生产场所的创造和破坏过程取决于技术、调整成本和制度因素。第三个问题是，在许多经济体中，就业创造和就业破坏的脱钩问题，以及促成这种脱钩的制度和其他因素。在这种基于成就的更新中，有六个相互关联的目标。

ABSTRACT Ignoring the ebullient nature of the microeconomic world and the problems within it is likely to hamper severely our ability to give meaningful quantitative---and sometimes even qualitative--- answers to questions as central as: What are the costs of recessions? How do financial and contractual factors hamper aggregate economic performance? What is the natural rate of unemployment? What is a ``reasonable` level of job destruction and unemployment in the aftermath of structural adjustment? What is the cost and why do some countries experience technological sclerosis? Why are methods of production (e.g., capital/labor ratios) so different across economies that are, otherwise, at a similar stage of development? Why do some countries build social institutions that are later perceived as obstacles to flexible adjustment? Why do poor countries with cheap labor so often fail to attract capital and grow? What is the likely impact of investment incentives? Will workers benefit from such incentives? Why are capital flows so volatile? How should international liquidity be managed during currency and systemic crises? and so on. This purpose of this project is to address some of these questions, and to provide a macroeconomic framework of analysis which builds from a realistic description of microeconomic institutions and behavior. This project incorporates three closely connected themes. First is the connection between individual microeconomic decisions, many of which occur intermittently, and aggregate economic activity. This project develops and applies a methodological apparatus designed to keep track of the impact of aggregate shocks on underlying cross-sectional distributions and vice versa. Second is the relationship between microeconomic decisions, economic restructuring, and macro dynamics - the Churn. The process of creation and destruction of production sites depends on technology, adjustment costs, and institutional factors. Third is the problem of the decoupling of job creation and job destruction in many economies, and the institutional and other factors contributing to it. Six interrelated goals are pursued in this Accomplishment Based Renewal.