Output Fluctuations at the Plant Level.
This paper examines the short-run dynamics of manufacturing costs by detailing how plants in the U.S. automobile industry change output. Weekly data show a variety of margins on which firms adjust production. These margins, which are distinct from the usual factor demand choices, differ in their lumpiness, their adjustment costs, and their variable costs. The existence of these margins explains several empirical puzzles of output fluctuations. Using a theory of the short-run dynamic cost function, the authors are able to infer some of the characteristics of the underlying cost function from the dynamic behavior of the different margins. Copyright 1994, the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Year of publication: |
1994
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Authors: | Bresnahan, Timothy F ; Ramey, Valerie A |
Published in: |
The Quarterly Journal of Economics. - MIT Press. - Vol. 109.1994, 3, p. 593-624
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Publisher: |
MIT Press |
Saved in:
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