Abstract: Recent literature on corporate profitability reports statistical regularities that persist in times of economic prosperity and crisis. In this study we analyze three episodes in U.S. economic and corporate history within the last 150 years (1863-1893, 1923-1953, and 1983-2013), allowing us to stress-test the regularities in statistical patterns and the applicability of the proposed data-generating model of competitive firms. The Great Depression after 1929 and periods of large-scale war production mark the only lasting deviations from regular patterns in corporation-level profitability. Our findings demonstrate that firm-level observations can contribute substantially to the understanding of patterns on the macro-level; we propose disaggregate factors that relate to the length and severity of economic crisis.
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