There's a common belief among economists that when there’s slack in the economy — that is, when labor and capital are not fully employed — the economy can expand without an increase in inflation. One measure of the intensity with which labor and capital are used in producing output is the capacity utilization rate. According to some economists, when capacity utilization is low, firms can increase employment and their use of capital without incurring large increases in the costs of production. So firms will not be forced to raise prices in order to make profits on additional output. But this theory is not universally accepted. In “The Relationship Between Capacity Utilization and Inflation,” Mike Dotsey and Tom Stark investigate some of the problems with what, at first glance, seems a compelling story.
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Article provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in its journal Business Review.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Stephen G. Cecchetti, 1995.
"Inflation Indicators and Inflation Policy,"
NBER Chapters,
in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1995, Volume 10, pages 189-236
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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