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Localized Competition and the Aggregation of Plant-Level Increasing Returns: Blast Furnaces, 1929-1935

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  • Bertin, Amy L
  • Bresnahan, Timothy F
  • Raff, Daniel M G

Abstract

A recent empirical literature has shaken economists' confidence in the value of aggregate (industry-level) data to illuminate production relationships. But the statistical finding 'you can't aggregate,' however well documented, is not an economic explanation. Plant-level relationships do aggregate in Depression-era blast furnace operations despite the presence of very substantial interplant heterogeneity, the most common economic cause of nonaggregability. The economic explanation of this lies in poor short-run substitutability of one plant's output for another's. Substitutability determines the importance of composition effects in understanding aggregate time series, constrains the potential cleansing effects of recessions, and therefore influences industry evolution quite broadly. Copyright 1996 by University of Chicago Press.

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  • Bertin, Amy L & Bresnahan, Timothy F & Raff, Daniel M G, 1996. "Localized Competition and the Aggregation of Plant-Level Increasing Returns: Blast Furnaces, 1929-1935," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(2), pages 241-266, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:104:y:1996:i:2:p:241-66
    DOI: 10.1086/262024
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    2. Yi-Chen Lin & Tai-Hsin Huang, 2012. "Creative destruction over the business cycle: a stochastic frontier analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 285-302, December.
    3. Chicu, Mark & Vickers, Chris & Ziebarth, Nicolas L., 2013. "Cementing the case for collusion under the National Recovery Administration," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 487-507.
    4. Uchida, Hirofumi & Miyakawa, Daisuke & Hosono, Kaoru & Ono, Arito & Uchino, Taisuke & Uesugi, Iichiro, 2013. "Natural Disaster and Natural Selection," Working Paper Series 25, Center for Interfirm Network, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    5. Maliranta, Mika, 2001. "Productivity Growth and Micro-level Restructuring. Finnish experiences during the turbulent decades," Discussion Papers 757, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    6. Hiroshi Ohashi & Tsuyoshi Nakamura, 2005. "Technology Adoption, Learning by Doing, and Productivity: A Study from Steel Refining Furnaces," 2005 Meeting Papers 28, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Barlevy, Gadi, 2003. "Credit market frictions and the allocation of resources over the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(8), pages 1795-1818, November.
    8. Uchida, Hirofumi & Miyakawa, Daisuke & Hosono, Kaoru & Ono, Arito & Uchino, Taisuke & Uesugi, Iichiro, 2015. "Financial shocks, bankruptcy, and natural selection," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 123-135.
    9. Tsuyoshi Nakamura & Hiroshi Ohashi, 2008. "Effects Of Technology Adoption On Productivity And Industry Growth: A Study Of Steel Refining Furnaces," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 470-499, September.
    10. Antle, John M., 1998. "No Such Thing as a Free Safe Lunch: The Cost of Food Safety Regulation in the Meat Industry," Research Discussion Papers 256822, Montana State University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Trade Research Center.
    11. Nicolas L. Ziebarth, 2013. "Identifying the Effects of Bank Failures from a Natural Experiment in Mississippi during the Great Depression," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 81-101, January.
    12. Hun Jun Lee & Jeong-Dong Lee & Chulwoo Baek, 2017. "Productivity dynamics and the cleansing effect of two recessions: Evidence from the manufacturing sector in Korea," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 677-701, October.
    13. Tsuyoshi Nakamura & Hiroshi Ohashi, 2005. "Technology Adoption, Learning by Doing, and Productivity: A Study of Steel Refining Furnaces," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-368, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    14. 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.

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