The Granular Origins of Macroeconomic Fluctuations in Europe /

This paper investigates the microeconomic origins of aggregate economic fluctuations in Europe. It examines the relevance of idiosyncratic shocks at the top 100 large firms (the granular shocks) in explaining aggregate macroeconomic fluctuations. The paper also assesses the strength of spillovers fr...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ebeke, Christian
Other Authors: Eklou, Kodjovi
Format: Journal
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2017.
Series:IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2017/229
Online Access:Full text available on IMF
Description
Summary:This paper investigates the microeconomic origins of aggregate economic fluctuations in Europe. It examines the relevance of idiosyncratic shocks at the top 100 large firms (the granular shocks) in explaining aggregate macroeconomic fluctuations. The paper also assesses the strength of spillovers from large firms onto SMEs. Using firm-level data covering over 14 million firms and eight european countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain), we find that: (i) 40 percent of the variance in GDP in the sample can be explained by idiosyncratic shocks at large firms; (ii) positive granular shocks at large firms spill over to domestic SMEs' output, especially if SMEs' balance sheets are healthy and if SMEs belong to the services and manufacturing sectors.
Item Description:<strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required
<strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required
Physical Description:1 online resource (33 pages)
Format:Mode of access: Internet
ISSN:1018-5941
Access:Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students