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Lumpy Investments, Factor Adjustments and Productivity

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Author Info
Øivind A. Nilsen, Arvid Raknerud, Marina Rybalka and Terje Skjerpen () (Statistics Norway)

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Abstract

This paper describes firms' output and factor demand before, during and after episodes of lumpy investments using a rich employer-employee panel data set for two manufacturing industries and one service industry. We focus on the simultaneous adjustment of capital, materials, man-hours, as well as the skill composition and hourly cost of labour. The investment spikes lead to roughly proportional changes in sales, labour and materials, while capital intensity increases significantly. Capital adjustments are found to be smoother in the service industry than in the two manufacturing industries, a difference that may be related to the labour intensity in the service industry. Finally, the changes in productivity associated with episodes of investment spikes are small, indicating that productivity improvements are related to learning-by-doing rather than instantaneous technological changes through investment spikes.

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Paper provided by Research Department of Statistics Norway in its series Discussion Papers with number 441.

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Date of creation: Dec 2005
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Handle: RePEc:ssb:dispap:441

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Related research
Keywords: Lumpy investments; Adjustment costs; Productivity; Panel data;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Estimation
C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data
D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior
D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Capital and Total Factor Productivity; Capacity

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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.)

  1. Øivind A. Nilsen, Arvid Raknerud, Marina Rybalka and Terje Skjerpen, 2008. "Skill Composition: Exploring a Wage-based Skill Measure," Discussion Papers 531, Research Department of Statistics Norway. [Downloadable!]
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