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Investment Behavior Of U.S. Firms Over Heterogeneous Capital Goods: A Snapshot

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  • Daniel Wilson

Abstract

Previous research has shown that the composition of investment and capital can matter for investment dynamics and productivity. However, very little is known about the composition of investment at the micro level. The goal of this note is to help fill this knowledge gap by assessing the nature of the cross‐firm variation in investment composition using micro data from the 1998 Annual Capital Expenditure Survey (ACES), a sample of roughly 30,000 firms drawn from the private, nonfarm economy. The data reveal substantial variation that can be characterized by heterogeneous lumpiness of investment in the asset‐type dimension. The data also show that some of the variation in investment composition is due to the state of firms’ total investment; specifically, computers account for a significantly larger share of firms’ incremental investment than of lumpy investment.

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  • Daniel Wilson, 2008. "Investment Behavior Of U.S. Firms Over Heterogeneous Capital Goods: A Snapshot," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(2), pages 269-278, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:54:y:2008:i:2:p:269-278
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4991.2008.00273.x
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    1. B. Atrostic, 2008. "Measuring U.S. innovative activity: business data at the U.S. Census Bureau," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 153-171, April.
    2. Wilson, Daniel J., 2009. "IT and Beyond: The Contribution of Heterogeneous Capital to Productivity," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 27, pages 52-70.
    3. Randy A. Becker & John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Shawn D. Klimek & Daniel J. Wilson, 2006. "Micro and Macro Data Integration: The Case of Capital," NBER Chapters, in: A New Architecture for the US National Accounts, pages 541-610, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Konstantinos Dimitrios Drakos & Eleftherios Goulas, 2010. "Investment in Greek manufacturing under irreversibility and uncertainty: the message in used capital expenditures," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(14), pages 1797-1809.
    5. Konstantinos Drakos, 2012. "Extent and intensity of investment with multiple capital goods," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(22), pages 2799-2810, August.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D29 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Other

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