Employment Cyclicality and Firm Quality

The research program of the Center for Economic Studies (CES) produces a wide range of economic analyses to improve the statistical programs of the U.S. Census Bureau. Many of these analyses take the form of CES research papers. These papers have not undergone the review accorded Census Bureau publications and no endorsement should be inferred. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Census Bureau or its staff. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed. Republication in whole or part must be cleared with the authors. We are grateful to Jason Abaluck, David Atkin, David Berger, Judy Chevalier, Florian Ederer, Chris Foote, John Haltiwanger, Larry Katz, Fabian Lange, Alina Lerman, Giuseppe Moscarini, Peter Schott, Jim Spletzer, Till von Wachter and seminar participants at the AEA 2013 meetings, Cornell, CUNY, Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, St. Louis, and NYC, McGill, NBER Labor Studies, RPI, Stanford, Society of Labor Economics 2013 Meetings, Stavanger-Bergen Workshop, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Delaware, the University of Utah, and Yale for helpful comments. We especially thank John Abowd and Kevin McKinney for providing us with some data elements. A previous version of this paper was entitled "Worker Flows over the Business Cycle: the Role of Firm Quality" (2012). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• November 18, 2014