First version: April, 2001 This version: February, 2005 ABSTRACT This paper analyzes a model of investment with fixed investment costs and capital market imperfections. In this model finance influences the level of capital firms hold, as well as the frequency at which they invest. In consequence investment reacts nonlinearly with respect to shocks to productivity and liquidity. Liquidity and pr...

Pressure on public finances has increased scrutiny of public support for innovation. We examine two particular issues. First, there have been many recent calls for the (relatively new) UK R&D subsidy to be extended to other “research” activities, such as software. Second, argument still rages about the efficacy of direct public spending on R&D via spending on academic research councils, univers...

More than 80 percent of the decline in the variance of aggregate output since 1984 is accounted for by a decline in the covariance (and correlation) of output among industries that hold inventories. Using a HAVAR macro model (Fratantoni and Schuh 2003) with only two sectors, manufacturing and trade, we show that this decline in comovement – and thus much of the Great Moderation in aggregate and...

In this paper we analyze a continuous-time model of investment with uncertainty, irreversibility and a broad class of lumpy adjustment costs. We show that the two components of the optimal investment strategy, the investment trigger and the investment increment, can be found sequentially, and that the optimal investment increment maximizes a closed form function. Solving the model numerically, ...

A considerable body of economic literature shows the adverse economic impacts of oil-price shocks for the developed economies. However, there has been a lack of empirical study of this kind on China and other developing countries. This paper attempts to fill this gap by answering how and to what extent oil-price shocks impact China’s economy, emphasizing on the price transmission mechanisms. To...

A popular interpretation of the Rational Expectations/Efficient Markets hypothesis states that, if it holds, market valuations must follow a random walk; hence, the hypothesis is frequently criticized on the basis of empirical evidence against such a prediction. Yet this reasoning incurs what we could call the ‘fallacy of probability diffusion symmetry’: although market efficiency does indeed i...

There are two facts related to the reallocation of physical assets across plants. In the macro level, capital reallocation, measured as the aggregate sales of used capital, is procyclical. In the micro level, selling used capital is costly. In this paper, I investigate the quantitative contribution of adverse selection in the used capital market towards generating the procyclical capital reallo...

This paper proposes a possible framework for identifying excessive investment. Based on this method, it finds evidence that some types of investment are becoming excessive in China, particularly in inland provinces. In these regions, private consumption has on average become more dependent on investment (rather than vice versa) and the impact is relatively short-lived, necessitating ever higher...

We examine the importance of asset pricing anomalies for the real economy. When firms interpret public information in the way it is reflected in market prices, informational inefficiencies manifesting in financial markets as anomalies can cause material real inefficiencies. We estimate the joint dynamic distribution of firm characteristics that have been linked to anomalies and other firm varia...

Using a German firm-level data set, this paper is the first to jointly study the cyclical properties of the cross-sections of firm-level real value added and Solow residual innovations, as well as capital and employment adjustment. We find two new business cycle facts: 1) The cross-sectional standard deviation of firm-level innovations in the Solow residual, value added and employment is robust...