We investigate how adverse selection in the used capital market generates procyclical sales of used capital -- capital reallocation. In our model, adverse selection produces a resale discount for used capital. In equilibrium, this endogenous partial irreversibility is more severe in recessions...

Using plant-level data from Chile and the U.S. we show that investment spikes are highly pro-cyclical, so much so that changes in the number of establishments undergoing investment spikes (the "extensive margin") account for the bulk of variation in aggregate investment. The number of...