One of macroeconomists’ major concerns is GDP volatility, and understanding what causes this volatility is essential when attempting to reduce it. For decades, the automotive industry has been a major component of US GDP. Therefore, understanding the driving forces behind this industry indirectly contributes to the study of GDP volatility. This paper focuses on CAFE standards and how they chang...

This paper focuses on how changes in the economic and regulatory environment have affected production costs and product characteristics in the automobile industry. We estimate "hedonic cost functions" that relate product-level costs to their characteristics. Then we examine how this cost surface has changed over time and how these changes relate to changes in gas prices and in emission standard...

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Virtual reality is used in many military, scienti c, and industrial applications, ranging from training astronauts to designing automobiles. Despite an eager market, the lack of high-performing products at consumer-level prices has relegated entertainment VR applications to something you’d nd in an amusement park or still languishing as a prototype. However, the announcement of several new high...