An illustration of the cost and employment effects of Japanese voluntary export restraints on new-car imports to the U.S.

The authors examine changes in the footprint of the auto industry in the United States, starting in 1980 and tracking them through 2003. Their formal analysis of assembly and supplier plant locations traces the reorientation of the auto region from one that extends east–west to one that...

Although used car prices represent only a small portion of the consumer price index, their extreme volatility has had a major impact on the measured inflation rate. To explain this relationship, the authors describe how used cars are treated in the CPI and explore what might cause the wide...

A commentary on free trade and the auto industry, with a discussion of the growth of Japanese auto imports, the cost and effect of import restrictions, and the probable effects of proposed domestic content legislation.

This paper documents the basic features of data on motor vehicles from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey. Despite some methodological differences between the two surveys, we find that they yield strikingly...

On October 8–9, 2009, the Chicago Fed, along with the Cleveland Fed, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, and the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, held a conference to address the ongoing adjustments of the automotive work force and its communities. This article...

The Chicago Fed, along with the Cleveland Fed, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, and the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, held a conference on October 8–9, 2009, to explore the ongoing adjustments of the automotive work force and its communities. This article...