This paper studies the relationship between demand uncertainty—the key source of excess capacity—and capacity utilization in the U.S. airline industry. We present a simple theoretical model that predicts that lower demand realizations are associated with higher demand volatility. This...

We present a dynamic model of capacity utilization and growth which takes into due account the joint determination of the international competitiveness (measured by the real exchange rate) and functional income distribution. It follows that how distribution, capacity utilization and growth vary...

Typically, firms change their size through a row of discrete leaps over time. A very basic model allowing for discontinuous growth can be based on a couple of assumptions: (a) in the short run, the firm’s equipment and organization provide the maximum profit only for a given production level,...

Typically, firms change their size through a row of discrete leaps over time. Sunk costs, regulatory, financial and organizational constraints, talent distribution and other factors may explain this fact. However, firms tend to grow or fall discontinuously even if those inertial factors were...

Structural reforms and market liberalization have led to a transformation of the Tanzanian economy since the mid-1980s. Studies on enterprises in the manufacturing sector seem to indicate that entrepreneurs persistently operated with low capacity utilization in the 1990s. In a liberalized market...

In most manufacturing industries output is adjusted in a lumpy way along three margins: shiftwork, weekend work, and closing a plant temporarily down. We incorporate such decisions into a dynamic general equilibrium model and study: (i) if such micro-level nonconvexities magnify business cycles;...

In a world of heterogeneous capital the aggregate capital-capacity ratio can change in a complicated way as the real wage rate changes and, therefore, nothing useful can be said, a priori, about the relationships between the real wage rate (or the aggregate profit share), the degree of capacity...