Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction / Hulten, Charles R. / Ramey, Valerie A. -- I. The Macroeconomic Link between Education and Real GDP Growth -- 1. Educational Attainment and the Revival of US Economic Growth / Jorgenson, Dale W. / Ho, Mun S. / Samuels, Jon D. -- 2. The Outlook for US...

This paper develops and tests the implications of optimal consumption behavior with borrowing constraints. The theory shows that liquidity constraints imply a distinctive intertemporal relationship between durable and nondurable goods consumption. Binding liquidity constraints appear as part of...

This paper examines the short-run dynamics of manufacturing costs by detailing how plants in the U.S. automobile industry change output. Weekly data show a variety of margins on which firms adjust production. These margins, which are distinct from the usual factor demand choices, differ in their...

This paper investigates the link between the trend in the returns to education and foreign competition in concentrated industries. The authors argue that the impact of foreign competition on the relative wages of less skilled workers depends on the market structure of the industry penetrated....

This note explains the diverging trends between real and nominal aggregate inventory-sales ratios. The combined effect of two features of the data explains the divergence. First, while aggregate sales include both goods and services, inventories include only goods. Second, there has been a...

This paper presents a theory of inventory investment by stage-of-processing, and uses it to examine the role of inventory investment in economic fluctuations. The model, in which inventories are treated as factors of production, is estimated for four durable goods industries. Three conclusions...