Nonconvex Costs and the Behavior of Inventories
探讨企业技术非凸性是否导致生产相对销售的过度波动，发现六个生产到库存行业及汽车行业均表现出非凸成本特征，对库存投资、生产率和价格的周期行为有重要影响。
This paper explores one possible explanation for the apparent excess volatility of production relative to sales: nonconvexities in the technology facing firms. It is shown that if firms operated in a region of declining marginal costs, then small shifts in demand can cause production to jump substantially. Estimates for six production-to-stock industries, as well as the automobile industry, suggest that all these industries behave as if they were operating in the region of nonconvex costs. The results have important implications not only for inventory investment, but also for the cyclical behavior of productivity and prices. Copyright 1991 by University of Chicago Press.