The Cyclical Behavior of Marginal Cost and Price
研究1956年后美国制造业边际成本与价格的周期行为，发现短期边际成本显著顺周期，而价格对成本变动反应不足，导致价格-成本利润率逆周期，支持衰退源于需求不足而非生产成本上升的理论。
The author examines the cyclical behavior of price/marginal cost margins for U.S. manufac turing after 1956. Short-run marginal cost is markedly procyclical. This is primarily due to procyclical overtime payments, incurred beca use employment is not perfectly flexible. In most industries, output price fails to respond to the cyclical movement in marginal cost; so price/marginal cost margins are markedly countercyclical. The res ults contradict business cycle theories that explain low production i n a recession by a high real cost of producing; they support theories that explain low production in a recession by the inability of firms to sell their output. Copyright 1987 by American Economic Association.