In this article, Evan F. Koenig demonstrates that the Federal Reserve Board's initial estimate of manufacturing capacity utilization is helpful in predicting subsequent growth in manufacturing output. Together with lagged real-time output growth and growth in the composite index of leading...

This paper provides a description of the dynamic choices of manufacturing plants when they undertake rapid adjustment in output. The focus is on episodes that involve lumpy adjustment in capital or employment. I examine the behavior of variables such as capital utilization, hours per worker,...

This paper describes patterns of factor utilization and output adjustment at the plant level for a wide range of manufacturing industries. We explain why manufacturing plants may differ quite a bit in how they accomplish output adjustments, depending on shutdown cost aspects of technology....

This paper analyzes the role of bank competition on the life-cycle dynamics of non-financial industries. Using multi-dimensional data sets, which contain information on job creation and destruction for establishments in U.S. manufacturing sectors operating in different geographical regions and...

Superseded by Working Paper 12-20 ; The authors study the rise in U.S. manufacturing exports from 1987 to 2002 through the lens of a monopolistically competitive model with heterogeneous producers and sunk costs of exporting. Using the model, they infer that iceberg costs fell nearly 27 percent...

Remarks at the State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, New York.