Adjustment Costs, Irreversibility and Investment Patterns in African Manufacturing

Adjustment Costs, Irreversibility and Investment Patterns in African Manufacturing PDF Author: Mr.Arne Bigsten
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451852258
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
This paper examines dynamic patterns of investment in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, assessing the consistency of those patterns with different adjustment cost structures. Using survey data on manufactured firms, we document the importance of zero investment episodes and lumpy investment. The proportion of firms experiencing large investment spikes is significant in explaining aggregate manufacturing investment. Taken together, evidence from descriptive statistics, average investment regressions modeling the response to capital imbalance, and transition data analysis indicate that irreversibility is an important factor considered by firms when making investment plans. The picture is not unanimous however, and some explanations for the mixed results are proposed.

Adjustment Costs, Irreversibility and Investment Patterns in African Manufacturing

Adjustment Costs, Irreversibility and Investment Patterns in African Manufacturing PDF Author: Mr.Arne Bigsten
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451852258
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 54

Get Book Here

Book Description
This paper examines dynamic patterns of investment in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, assessing the consistency of those patterns with different adjustment cost structures. Using survey data on manufactured firms, we document the importance of zero investment episodes and lumpy investment. The proportion of firms experiencing large investment spikes is significant in explaining aggregate manufacturing investment. Taken together, evidence from descriptive statistics, average investment regressions modeling the response to capital imbalance, and transition data analysis indicate that irreversibility is an important factor considered by firms when making investment plans. The picture is not unanimous however, and some explanations for the mixed results are proposed.

Understanding Macroeconomic Theory

Understanding Macroeconomic Theory PDF Author: Bradley T. Ewing
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135990581
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
At each point in time, individuals make choices with respect to the acquisition, sale, and/or use of a variety of different goods. Such activity can be summarized by aggregate variables such as an economy’s total production of various goods and services, the aggregate level of unemployment, the general level of interest rates, and the overall level of prices. The focus of this book is on developing simple theoretical models that provide insight into the reasons for fluctuations in such aggregate variables. The models included explore how shocks or ‘impulses’ to the economy (e.g. changes to technology, the money supply, or government policy) impact individuals’ behaviour in specific markets, and the resulting implications in terms of changes in aggregate variables. This book provides the reader with an in-depth understanding of standard theoretical models: Walrasian, Keynesian and Neoclassical. Pedagogically sophisticated, it is theoretically based, rigorous and includes a host of real world case studies and exercises. Underpinned by solid microfoundations, it is written in a concise, accessible style and is an indispensable tool for all students who wish to a gain a firm grounding in the complexities of macroeconomic theories as well as government and private sector researchers of macroeconomics.

Explaining Investment Dynamics in U.S. Manufacturing

Explaining Investment Dynamics in U.S. Manufacturing PDF Author: Ricardo J. Caballero
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Capital investments
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
In this paper we derive a model of aggregate investment that builds from the lumpy microeconomic behavior of firms facing stochastic fixed adjustment costs. Instead of the standard (S, s) bands, firms' optimal adjustment policies are probabilistic, with a probability of adjusting (adjustment hazard) that grows smoothly with firms' disequilibria. Depending upon the specification of the distribution of fixed adjustment costs, the adjustment hazards approach encompasses models ranging from the very non-linear (S, s) model to the linear partial adjustment model. Except for the latter extreme, the processes for aggregate investment obtained from adding up the actions of firms subject to aggregate and idiosyncratic shocks, is highly non-linear. Estimating the aggregate model by maximum likelihood, we find clear evidence supporting non-linear models over linear ones for postwar sectoral U.S. manufacturing equipment and structures investment. For a given sequence of aggregate shocks, the nonlinear model estimated generates brisker expansions and - to a lesser extent - sharper contractions than its linear counterpart. These features fit well the observed positive skewness and large kurtosis of U.S. manufacturing sectoral investment/capital ratios.

Handbook of Macroeconomics

Handbook of Macroeconomics PDF Author: John B. Taylor
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 9780444501578
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Annotation Part 6: Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy. 19. Asset prices, consumption, and the business cycle (J.Y. Campbell). 20. Human behavior and the efficiency of the financial system (R.J. Shiller). 21. The financial accelerator in a quantitative business cycle framework (B. Bernanke, M. Gertler and S. Gilchrist). Part 7: Monetary and Fiscal Policy. 22. Political economics and macroeconomic policy (T. Persson, G. Tabellini). 23. Issues in the design of monetary policy rules (B.T. McCallum). 24. Inflation stabilization and BOP crises in developing countries (G.A. Calvo, C.A. Vegh). 25. Government debt (D.W. Elmendorf, N.G. Mankiw). 26. Optimal fiscal and monetary policy (V.V. Chari, P.J. Kehoe).

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics PDF Author:
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349588024
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 7493

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Book Description
The award-winning The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition is now available as a dynamic online resource. Consisting of over 1,900 articles written by leading figures in the field including Nobel prize winners, this is the definitive scholarly reference work for a new generation of economists. Regularly updated! This product is a subscription based product.

The Economics of Inaction

The Economics of Inaction PDF Author: Nancy L. Stokey
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691135053
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
In The Economics of Inaction, leading economist Nancy Stokey shows how the tools of stochastic control can be applied to dynamic problems of decision making under uncertainty when fixed costs are present. Stokey provides a self-contained, rigorous, and clear treatment of two types of models, impulse and instantaneous control. She presents the relevant results about Brownian motion and other diffusion processes, develops methods for analyzing each type of problem, and discusses applications to price setting, investment, and durable goods purchases."--Pub. desc.

Advances in Efficiency and Productivity Analysis

Advances in Efficiency and Productivity Analysis PDF Author: Christopher F. Parmeter
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030471063
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
The volume examines the state-of-the-art of productivity and efficiency analysis. It brings together a selection of the best papers from the 10th North American Productivity Workshop. By analyzing world-wide perspectives on challenges that local economies and institutions may face when changes in productivity are observed, readers can quickly assess the impact of productivity measurement, productivity growth, dynamics of productivity change, measures of labor productivity, measures of technical efficiency in different sectors, frontier analysis, measures of performance, industry instability and spillover effects. The contributions in this volume focus on the theory and application of economics, econometrics, statistics, management science and operational research related to problems in the areas of productivity and efficiency measurement. Popular techniques and methodologies including stochastic frontier analysis and data envelopment analysis are represented. Chapters also cover broader issues related to measuring, understanding, incentivizing and improving the productivity and performance of firms, public services, and industries.

Investment and Exit Decisions at the Plant Level

Investment and Exit Decisions at the Plant Level PDF Author: Joachim Winter
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642998038
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
This book develops a dynamic programming framework for the analysis of firms' joint investment and market exit decisions and reviews methods for econometric estimation of such models. In an empirical application of this framework, a version of this model that allows for financial constraints is estimated by structural methods, using a plant-level dataset for a sample of U.S. firms. The empirical analysis shows that both the plant's productivity and firm-level financial constraints have important effects on plant-level investment and exit decisions. The main contribution of the book to the empirical investment literature is the application of a mixed discrete-continuous Markov process framework to investment and exit decisions, and the structural estimation using a full-information maximum-likelihood method, the nested fixed-point algorithm.

Handbook of Monetary Economics 3A

Handbook of Monetary Economics 3A PDF Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080932703
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 754

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Book Description
What tools are available for setting and analyzing monetary policy? World-renowned contributors examine recent evidence on subjects as varied as price-setting, inflation persistence, the private sector's formation of inflation expectations, and the monetary policy transmission mechanism. Stopping short of advocating conclusions about the ideal conduct of policy, the authors focus instead on analytical methods and the changing interactions among the ingredients and properties that inform monetary models. The influences between economic performance and monetary policy regimes can be both grand and muted, and this volume clarifies the present state of this continually evolving relationship. - Explores the models and practices used in formulating and transmitting monetary policies - Raises new questions about the volume, price, and availability of credit in the 2007-2010 downturn - Questions fiscal-monetary connnections and encourages new thinking about the business cycle itself - Observes changes in the formulation of monetary policies over the last 25 years

Nber Macroeconomics Annual 1997

Nber Macroeconomics Annual 1997 PDF Author: Ben S. Bernanke
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262522427
Category : Macroeconomics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description