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Working Paper
Why are plant deaths countercyclical: reallocation timing or fragility?
Because plant deaths destroy specific capital with large local economic impacts and potentially important macroeconomic effects, understanding the causes of deaths and, in particular, why they are concentrated in cyclical downturns, is important. The reallocation-timing hypothesis posits that plants suffering adverse permanent demand/productivity shocks delay shutdowns until cyclical downturns when plant capacity is less valuable, while the fragility hypothesis posits that shutdowns occur in downturns because the option value of maintaining the plant through weak demand periods is too low. I ...
Journal Article
Are states giving away the store?
Journal Article
Understanding the life-cycle of a manufacturing plant.
In the final article this quarter, Aubhik Khan wonders: What determines whether a manufacturing plant survives? Is it access to credit markets? Or does learning about plants' profitability over time determine survival? Should government policy play a role in helping plants survive? In "Understanding the Life-Cycle of a Manufacturing Plant," Khan discusses the collateral and learning views as two possible explanations for a typical plant's life-cycle. He concludes that although it remains unclear as to which explanation is more relevant, the two views have very different implications for ...