Investment: Theory, Estimates, and Public Policy

投资：理论、估算和公共政策本项目将分析投资支出的决定因素。它将量化几个关键决定因素，并研究它们如何在理论和实践中影响投资。该提案以两个相关的研究方向为特色。第一个研究部分是在分类层面上对投资进行实证分析。第二部分是开发和估计投资的结构模型。这两个研究组成部分是互补的。经验结果用于结构模型的信息、测试和参数估计。反过来，结构模型提供了对近期和未来投资政策影响的重要见解。项目的第一部分是投资的实证分析。本研究确立了投资理论应该匹配的关键实证事实。它还评估了几个现有理论的经验成功。具体而言，本文利用一组特定类型的投资数据，研究了四个突出的实证问题：(1)税前和税后投资价格的周期性；(2)不确定性在投资支出中的作用；(3)投资对税收补贴的反应；(4)汽车生产和价格对2009年消费者回收和节约援助法案的反应，也被称为“旧车换现金”。所使用的主要数据集是经济分析局的投资基础详细表、最近可获得的经济不确定性措施以及一套更新、修订的特定类型投资税收补贴。第二部分提出了投资结构均衡模型。该理论框架建立在以往研究的基础上，这些研究以微观层面的固定调整成本为特征。该模型通过引入早期工作中没有出现的新的投资时机摩擦，为这项研究增添了新的内容。时间摩擦允许企业层面的异质性对均衡投资动态产生实质性影响。这是对固定成本和企业层面异质性研究的重要延伸，因为这种异质性的重要影响在早期的模型中并不存在。因此，拟议的框架将为分析投资政策提供更好的指导。时间摩擦的大小将用特定类型的投资数据来估计。本文第一部分的实证工作将提供几个参数来评估理论模型的拟合性，并对具体政策变化的影响进行估计。智力价值的总结。该项目将开发一个现代投资模型，该模型包含了隐含重要公司层面异质性的关键摩擦。虽然该模型包含了许多复杂的现代特征，但它在分析上也是易于处理的，并产生了清晰的可测试的预测。因此，本研究将允许现代投资模型以有意义的方式面对数据，并用于评估具体政策。概述更广泛的影响。这项研究将为政府制定政策提供理论和实证指导，这些政策要么是通过刺激投资来影响整体经济活动，要么是通过促进投资来促进经济增长。此外，通过揭示各种冲击如何影响投资活动，这一分析结果将对研究商业周期有价值。

Project SummaryInvestment: Theory, Estimates, and Public PolicyThis project will analyze the determinants of investment spending. It will quantify several key determinants and study how they affect investment both in theory and in practice. The proposal features two related lines of research. The first research component is an empirical analysis of investment at a disaggregated level. The second component develops and estimates a structural model of investment. The two research components are complementary. The empirical results are used to inform, test, and estimate parameters of the structural model. In turn, the structural model provides important insights into the effects of recent and future investment policies. The first part of the project presents an empirical analysis of investment. This research establishes key empirical facts that investment theories should match. It also evaluates the empirical success of several existing theories. Specifically, using a panel of type-specific investment data, four prominent empirical issues are studied: (1) the cyclicality of pre-tax and after-tax investment prices; (2) the role of uncertainty in investment spending; (3) the response of investment to tax subsidies and (4) the response of automobile production and prices to the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009, also known as "cash for clunkers.?" The primary data sets used are the BEA underlying detail tables for investment, recently available measures of economic uncertainty, and an updated, revised set of type-specific investment tax subsidies.The second part of the proposal presents a structural equilibrium model of investment. The theoretical framework builds on previous studies which feature fixed adjustment costs at the microlevel. The model adds to this research by introducing a new investment timing friction not featured in earlier work. The timing friction allows firm-level heterogeneity to have a substantial influence on equilibrium investment dynamics. This is a ignificant extension of the research on fixed costs and firm-level heterogeneity since important effects of such heterogeneity are not present in earlier models. As a result, the proposed framework will provide a better guide to analyzing investment policy. The magnitude of the timing friction will be estimated with type-specific investment data. The empirical work in the first part of the proposal will provide several parameters to assess the fit of the theoretical model and to develop estimates of the effects of specific policy changes.Summary of intellectual merit. The project will develop a modern model of investment that incorporates key frictions that imply important firm-level heterogeneity. While the model incorporates many complex modern features, it is also analytically tractable and yields sharp testable predictions. Hence, this research will allow modern investment models to confront the data in a meaningful way and to be used to evaluate specific policies.Summary of broader implications. This research will provide both theoretical and empirical guidance for government policies designed either to affect overall economic activity by stimulating investment or to promote investment to increase economic growth. Additionally, the results of this analysis will be valuable to studying business cycles by shedding light on how various shocks affect investment activity.