IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cuf/journl/y2017v18i1liu.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Structural Method to Estimate Firm-level Capacity Utilization and Application to Chinese Heavy Industries

Author

Listed:
  • Shengyu Liu

    (Beijing Normal University, School of Business)

  • Heng Yin

    (Renmin University of China, National Academy of Development and Strategy)

Abstract

We develop a structural model to estimate firm-specific capacity utilization (CU). Firm's productivity heterogeneity can be controlled in this framework. We demonstrate that the lowest point of short-run average total cost curve is the most suitable definition of potential output. The method is then tested by firm-level data including 15 Chinese heavy industries during 1998-2008. Intuitive findings provide strong evidence for the reliability and robustness of our estimation framework: CU keeps rising during the sample period, while slowing down after 2004; there are substantial differences in CU across industries, regions and ownerships; CU is strongly pro-cyclical; firm investment and government intervention deteriorates the problem of excess capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • Shengyu Liu & Heng Yin, 2017. "A Structural Method to Estimate Firm-level Capacity Utilization and Application to Chinese Heavy Industries," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 18(1), pages 1-28, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2017:v:18:i:1:liu
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://down.aefweb.net/AefArticles/aef180101Liu.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan De Loecker, 2011. "Product Differentiation, Multiproduct Firms, and Estimating the Impact of Trade Liberalization on Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(5), pages 1407-1451, September.
    2. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2014. "The Life Cycle of Plants in India and Mexico," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1035-1084.
    3. Gilbert Cette & Nicolas Dromel & Rémy Lecat & Anne-Charlotte Paret, 2015. "Production Factor Returns: The Role of Factor Utilization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(1), pages 134-143, March.
    4. Nicholas Bloom & Benn Eifert & Aprajit Mahajan & David McKenzie & John Roberts, 2013. "Does Management Matter? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(1), pages 1-51.
    5. Catherine J. Morrison, 1985. "On the Economic Interpretation and Measurement of Optimal Capacity Utilization with Anticipatory Expectations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 52(2), pages 295-309.
    6. Nelson, Randy A, 1989. "On the Measurement of Capacity Utilization," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 273-286, March.
    7. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    8. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2009. "Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1403-1448.
    9. Zheng Song & Kjetil Storesletten & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2011. "Growing Like China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 196-233, February.
    10. Jaumandreu, Jordi & Yin, Heng, 2017. "Cost and Product Advantages: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 11862, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Daniel A. Ackerberg & Kevin Caves & Garth Frazer, 2015. "Identification Properties of Recent Production Function Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 2411-2451, November.
    12. Brandt, Loren & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Yifan, 2012. "Creative accounting or creative destruction? Firm-level productivity growth in Chinese manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 339-351.
    13. Carol Corrado & Joe Mattey, 1997. "Capacity Utilization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 151-167, Winter.
    14. Lee, Jong-Kun, 1995. "Comparative performance of short-run capacity utilization measures," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(3-4), pages 293-300, June.
    15. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    16. Greenwood, Jeremy & Hercowitz, Zvi & Huffman, Gregory W, 1988. "Investment, Capacity Utilization, and the Real Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 402-417, June.
    17. J. M. Cassels, 1937. "Excess Capacity and Monopolistic Competition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 51(3), pages 426-443.
    18. Badi H. Baltagi & James M. Griffin & Sharada R. Vadali, 1998. "Excess capacity: a permanent characteristic of US airlines?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(6), pages 645-657.
    19. Gilbert Cette & Nicolas Dromel & Rémy Lecat & Anne-Charlotte Paret, 2015. "Production Factor Returns: The Role of Factor Utilization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(1), pages 134-143, March.
    20. Leonardo Auernheimer & Danilo Trupkin, 2014. "The Role of Inventories and Capacity Utilization as Shock Absorbers," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(1), pages 70-85, January.
    21. Berndt, Ernst R & Morrison, Catherine J, 1981. "Capacity Utilization Measures: Underlying Economic Theory and an Alternative Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(2), pages 48-52, May.
    22. Susanto Basu & Miles S. Kimball, 1997. "Cyclical Productivity with Unobserved Input Variation," NBER Working Papers 5915, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Shailendra Gajanan & D. Malhotra, 2007. "Measures of capacity utilization and its determinants: a study of Indian manufacturing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 765-776.
    24. Ulrich Doraszelski & Jordi Jaumandreu, 2013. "R&D and Productivity: Estimating Endogenous Productivity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(4), pages 1338-1383.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dai, Xiaoyong & Zhao, Zhiqi, 2021. "Can exporting resolve overcapacity? Evidence from Chinese steel companies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dai, Xiaoyong & Zhao, Zhiqi, 2021. "Can exporting resolve overcapacity? Evidence from Chinese steel companies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    2. Mohieddine Rahmouni, 2021. "Determinants of capacity utilisation by firms in developing countries: evidence from Tunisia," International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 13(3), pages 212-245.
    3. Dale Squires & Kathleen Segerson, 2022. "Capacity and Capacity Utilization in Production Economics," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Robert G. Chambers & Subal C. Kumbhakar (ed.), Handbook of Production Economics, chapter 24, pages 1001-1037, Springer.
    4. Chang Xu & Jianbing Guo & Baodong Cheng & Yu Liu, 2019. "Exports, Misallocation, and Total Factor Productivity of Furniture Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-14, September.
    5. Qilin Mao & Jiayun Xu, 2024. "Zombie firms, misallocation and manufacturing capacity utilization rate: Evidence from China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 641-682, April.
    6. Laiqun Jin & Changwei Mo & Bochao Zhang & Bing Yu, 2018. "What Is the Focus of Structural Reform in China?—Comparison of the Factor Misallocation Degree within the Manufacturing Industry with a Unified Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, November.
    7. Qiu, Larry D. & Yu, Miaojie, 2020. "Export scope, managerial efficiency, and trade liberalization: Evidence from Chinese firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 71-90.
    8. Simone Lenzu & Francesco Manaresi, 2019. "Sources and implications of resource misallocation: new evidence from firm-level marginal products and user costs," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 485, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Toni M. Whited & Jake Zhao, 2021. "The Misallocation of Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(5), pages 2359-2407, October.
    10. Fang, Jing & He, Hui & Li, Nan, 2020. "China's rising IQ (Innovation Quotient) and growth: Firm-level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    11. Zhang, Hongsong, 2019. "Non-neutral technology, firm heterogeneity, and labor demand," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 145-168.
    12. Jamil, Nida & Chaudhry, Theresa Thompson & Chaudhry, Azam, 2022. "Trading textiles along the new silk route: The impact on Pakistani firms of gaining market access to China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Jaumandreu, Jordi & Doraszelski, Ulrich, 2019. "Using Cost Minimization to Estimate Markups," CEPR Discussion Papers 14114, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Francesco Manaresi & Nicola Pierri, 2018. "Credit supply and productivity growth," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1168, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    15. Francesco Manaresi & Nicola Pierri, 2018. "Credit supply and productivity growth," BIS Working Papers 711, Bank for International Settlements.
    16. Lenzu, Simone & Manaresi, Francesco, 2018. "Do Marginal Products Differ from User Costs? Micro-Level Evidence from Italian Firms," Working Papers 276, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    17. Wu, Guiying Laura & Feng, Qu & Wang, Zhifeng, 2021. "A structural estimation of the return to infrastructure investment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    18. Zhang, Teng & Xu, Shu & Zhang, Shuoxun, 2022. "Are export tax rebates patronage for Chinese firms? An analysis of productivity," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    19. Dai, Xiaoyong & Sun, Zao & Liu, Hang, 2018. "Disentangling the effects of endogenous export and innovation on the performance of Chinese manufacturing firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 42-58.
    20. Francesco Manaresi & Mr. Nicola Pierri, 2019. "Credit Supply and Productivity Growth," IMF Working Papers 2019/107, International Monetary Fund.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Capacity utilization; Firm heterogeneity; Structural estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2017:v:18:i:1:liu. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Qiang Gao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emcufcn.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.