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The Workweek of Capital and Capital Utilization in Manufacturing

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  • J. Beaulieu
  • Joe Mattey

Abstract

Over the typical intervals of time studied in economic analysis, the flow of capital services is not a fixed proportion of the capital stock. Much of the short-run variation in capital services comes from the duration of operations. This paper presents new estimates of the workweek of capital from the Census Bureau' Survey of Plant Capacity (SPC), both for our own analytical use and to make workweek data more widely available to other researchers. The paper uses these workweek estimates to reconsider various results in the literature on capital utilization and productivity growth. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998

Suggested Citation

  • J. Beaulieu & Joe Mattey, 1998. "The Workweek of Capital and Capital Utilization in Manufacturing," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 199-223, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:10:y:1998:i:2:p:199-223
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1018629508255
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    Cited by:

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    2. Salnikov, Vladimir & Galimov, Dmitry & Mikheeva, Olga & Gnidchenko, Andrey & Rybalka, Alexey, 2017. "Russian manufacturing production capacity: Primary trends and structural characteristics," Russian Journal of Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 240-262.
    3. Chatterjee, Santanu, 2005. "Capital utilization, economic growth and convergence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2093-2124, December.
    4. Susanto Basu & John Fernald, 2001. "Why Is Productivity Procyclical? Why Do We Care?," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 225-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Michalis Nikiforos, 2020. "Notes on the Accumulation and Utilization of Capital: Some Empirical Issues," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_953, Levy Economics Institute.
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    9. Miles S. Kimball & John G. Fernald & Susanto Basu, 2006. "Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1418-1448, December.
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    11. Andreas Hornstein, 2002. "Towards a theory of capacity utilization: shiftwork and the workweek of capital," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Spr, pages 65-86.
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    14. Villa Stefania, 2012. "Capital Utilization and the Amplification Mechanism," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, September.
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    18. Christopher C. Klein, 2007. "Cost and Production Duality with Time Utilization of Capital," Working Papers 200704, Middle Tennessee State University, Department of Economics and Finance.
    19. Michalis Nikiforos, 2021. "Notes on the accumulation and utilization of capital: Some empirical issues," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 679-695, November.
    20. Sustek, Roman, 2009. "Nonconvex Margins of Output Adjustment and Aggregate Fluctuations," MPRA Paper 17486, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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