The marginal cost of plant capacity, measured by the price of equity is significantly procyclical. Yet, the price of a major intermediate input into expanding plant capacity, investment goods, is coutercyclical. The ratio of these prices is Tobin's q. We interpret the fact that Tobin's q differs from unity at all reflects that there are diminishing returns to expanding plant capacity by installing investment goods (`adjustment costs'). Also, its numerator and denominator have such different cyclical properties. We find the sign switch in their covariation with output reflects interaction of our adjustment cost specification with the operation of two shocks: one which affects the demand for equity and another which shifts the technology for producing investment goods. The adjustment costs cause the two prices to respond differently to these two shocks which is why it is possible to choose the shock variances to reproduce the sign switch. These model features are incorporated into a modified version of a model analyzed in Boldrin, Christiano and Fisher (1995) which contains assumptions designed to account for the observed mean return on risk free and risky assets. We find various modifications not only account for the sign switch but also continue to account for the salient features of mean asset returns. We turn to business cycle implications of our model. The model does as well as standard models with respect to conventional business cycle measures of volatility and comovement with output, and on one dimension the model significantly dominates standard models. The factors that help it account for prices and rates of return on assets also help it account for the fact that employment across a broad range of sectors moves together over the cycle.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
5292.
Length: Date of creation: Oct 1995 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5292
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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.:
Lucas, Robert E, Jr & Prescott, Edward C, 1971.
"Investment Under Uncertainty,"
Econometrica,
Econometric Society, vol. 39(5), pages 659-81, September.
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Cited by: (explanations, 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.)
Valerie A. Ramey & Matthew D. Shapiro, 1998.
"Displaced Capital,"
NBER Working Papers
6775, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Other versions:
King, Robert G. & Rebelo, Sergio T., 1999.
"Resuscitating real business cycles,"
Handbook of Macroeconomics,
in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 14, pages 927-1007
Elsevier.
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