Search Results
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.