Search Results
Journal Article
Measuring the unseen: a primer on capacity utilization
An examination of the usefulness of two measures of capacity utilization in predicting price pressures and future investment: one measure attempts to represent the maximum physical output a plant can produce, and one is based on changes in production costs as output increases; article concludes with July 1 issue.
Working Paper
Enforcement of pollution regulations in a declining industry
An examination of the effect of EPA enforcement activity as it relates to company plant-closing decisions and company compliance decisions in the U.S. steel industry, finding fewer enforcement actions taken toward plants with an already high probability of closing.
Journal Article
A user's guide to capacity-utilization measures
A look at the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board indexes of capacity utilization, with an explanation of the indexes' construction, advantages, and shortcomings; conclusion of June 15 issue.
Working Paper
Factor-adjustment costs at the industry level
An estimation of a dynamic cost function for the U.S. steel industry to investigate the cost of adjusting blue- and white-collar employment levels and to examine the importance of specification of the adjustment-cost function.
Working Paper
The impact of firm characteristics on plant closing decisions
An examination of the plant-closing decisions of integrated steel firms in the United States from 1977-1987 to determine whether firm characteristics influenced either the probability or the timing of a plant's closing during this decade of significant industry contraction.
Journal Article
Exit barriers in the steel industry
A study of how excess capacity in the steel industry has persisted because of high exit barriers that have delayed the industry's contraction; includes a discussion of the effects of current trade protection and pension policies on the size of exit barriers.
Working Paper
Exit from the U.S. steel industry
The development of a test for whether an industry reduces capacity by first closing its highest-cost plants, using plant-level data from the U.S. steel industry.