The motor vehicle industry has undergone important changes in recent years, including a shift in production from autos to light trucks and growth of vehicle leasing. This paper uses household-level data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances to document changes in households'...

This book provides an accessible guide to price index and hedonic techniques, with a focus on how to best apply these techniques and interpret the resulting measures. One goal of this book is to provide first-hand experience at constructing these measures, with guidance on practical issues such...

This paper documents the importance of high-frequency plant shutdowns in auto assembly plants in generating the observed procyclicality of an aggregate labor productivity series for that industry. An important fact about plant shutdowns in this industry is that some workers typically remain at...

This paper analyzes the implications of plant shutdowns for the measurement of labor productivity using two sets of dataon motor vehicles for 1978 - 1984. In particular, we explore the role played by plant shutdowns in generating procyclicality in an aggregate labor productivity measure. We...

The semiconductor industry is credited with one of the fastest rates of product innovation and technical change within manufacturing, as chipmakers generate wave after wave of ever more powerful chips at prices not much higher than those of existing chips. This industry has undoubtedly been an...