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 brief essay introduces a special issue of the Journal of Industrial Economics devoted to the recent burst of empirical work in industrial organization. Trends in empirical research in this field are discussed, emphasizing the ways in which recent work builds upon and departs from earlier...

A recent empirical literature has shaken economists' confidence in the value of aggregate (industry-level) data to illuminate production relationships. But the statistical finding 'you can't aggregate,' however well documented, is not an economic explanation. Plant-level relationships do...