Inventory investment and the real interest rate

The relationship between inventory investment and the real interest rate has been difficult to assess empirically. Recent work has proposed a linear-quadratic inventory model with time-varying discount factor to identify the effects of real interest rate on inventory investment. The authors show that this framework does not separately identify the effects of real interest rate on inventory investment from variables that determine the expected marginal cost of production. Consequently, understanding the relationship between inventory investment and the real interest rate continues to be a challenge for macroeconomists. -- Inventory investment ; real interest rate