1. Can intangible capital explain cyclical movements in the labor wedge?
- Author
-
Gourio, François and Rudanko, Leena
- Subjects
Reallohn ,Konjunktur ,capital ,labor wedge ,Business cycle ,Arbeitsproduktivität ,ComputingMilieux_GENERAL ,ddc:330 ,E13 ,Real Business Cycle ,Beziehungsmarketing ,Theorie ,USA ,E32 ,Immaterielle Werte - Abstract
Intangible capital is an important factor of production in modern economies that is generally neglected in business cycle analyses. We demonstrate that intangible capital can have a substantial impact on business cycle dynamics, especially if the intangible is complementary with production capacity. We focus on customer capital: the capital embodied in the relationships a firm has with its customers. Introducing customer capital into a standard real business cycle model generates a volatile and countercyclical labor wedge, due to a mismeasured marginal product of labor. We also provide new evidence on cyclical variation in selling effort to discipline the exercise.
- Published
- 2014