Misallocating Misallocation?
指出宏观文献常将生产率损失归因于资源错配，但未深究扭曲来源；微观文献虽揭示市场失灵导致的扭曲，却忽视宏观后果。若扭曲源于市场失灵而非政策，次优政策可能加剧错配，未来研究应识别扭曲来源并采用更合适的福利基准。
The macrodevelopment literature on misallocation quantifies aggregate productivity losses resulting from microeconomic distortions, relative to a first-best benchmark. However, sources of these distortions are often insufficiently explored. The microdevelopment literature in contrast provides evidence of distortions resulting from market failures owing to asymmetric information, missing markets, transaction costs, and limited state capacity, often without examining the resulting macrolevel consequences. If distortions result from such market failures rather than policies, second-best welfare-improving policies may aggravate productive misallocation. We illustrate these points in the context of manufacturing, agriculture, and rural-urban allocation of labor and land. Hence future research should devote more effort to identifying the source of distortions and using appropriate benchmarks for welfare going beyond productivity.