According to participants in the Chicago Fed’s annual Automotive Outlook Symposium, the nation’s economic decline is forecasted to bottom out this year; solid economic growth is expected in 2010—with inflation staying contained but the unemployment rate remaining high. Light vehicle sales...

In linking demographic trends of the last two decades to the geographic dispersion of the auto industry, this article finds that the addition of a large plant significantly influences the migration experience of the host county as well as counties adjacent to it.

Shopping for a new car over the Internet.

This paper presents a model of consumer automobile replacement in the presence of leasing. The model incorporates credit constraints to distinguish between the leasing and purchasing options. It demonstrates how leasing increases the probability that a household replaces its automobile and how...

We examine the ability of auto industry stock returns to forecast quarterly changes in the growth rates of real GDP, consumption, and investment. We find that auto stock returns are superior to aggregate stock market returns in predicting growth rates of GDP and various forms of consumption. The...

A review of the developments that have led to chronic excess capacity in the U.S. motor vehicle industry, and a consideration of the prospects facing this industry in the decade ahead.