Productivity Dynamics in Japan and the Negative Exit Effect

We conducted an analysis of productivity dynamics using the microdata of the Credit Risk Database (CRD), the Establishment and Enterprise Census and the Economic Census. We found that the negative exit effect in Japan is driven by the exit of some highly productive firms. This finding suggests that to reduce the negative exit effect policies to support SMEs should not be based on their size but by focusing on SMEs with high TFP that are actively investing.