Interdependence and Performance: A Natural Experiment in Firm Scope
利用秘鲁渔业监管禁令前后的微观数据，研究发现企业缩减活动范围后，原有业务的短期生产率大幅下降，但长期会恢复，且下降幅度与活动间相互依赖程度正相关。
This paper shows how interdependencies influence performance following a reduction in firm scope. We test the predictions of the theory using detailed microdata on every Peruvian fishing firm before and after a regulatory ban on mackerel fishing, finding that a reduction in the scope of activities causes the productivity of firms’ legacy anchovy operations to fall sharply, before recovering in the long run. The results are most pronounced for firms with the strongest interdependencies between activities. Moreover, we find evidence that the persistence of the productivity decline is explicitly tied to a failure to adapt quickly following the ban. Consistent with our conceptual characterization, the evidence suggests that interdependencies between activities simultaneously create benefits as well as costs, but that costs are more persistent when the firm reduces its scope of activities.