Empirical Work on Unsettled Issues of Inventory Research

9312239马奇尼库存波动是景气周期的重要特征。然而，库存研究处于一种非常不稳定的状态。这项研究将聚焦于两个重要的悬而未决的问题。其一是，生产过程中重要投入品价格大幅上涨以及需要持有缓冲库存等形式的成本冲击是否能够解释库存和生产的变动。现有的工作集中在一小部分制造业，仅限于产成品库存。本研究重点考察生产与订单、生产与库存之间的关系，并考察订单积压与库存之间的相互作用。此外，它还将审查材料和供应品库存与产成品库存变动之间的相互作用。第二个要分析的问题是，信贷市场状况如何影响库存变动。这对于理解货币政策如何影响经济至关重要。研究的重点是信贷市场的不完善带来的借贷约束是否会导致某些企业获得信贷的机会有限，进而影响它们的库存持有行为模式。还将建立和使用单个公司的数据库，将财务状况数据与库存和销售数据结合起来。***

9312239 Maccini Inventory fluctuations are an important feature of business cycles. Yet inventory research is in a very unsettled state. This research will focus on two important unsettled issues. One is whether cost shocks in the form of significant price increases of important inputs in the production process together with the need to hold buffer stocks can explain inventory and production movements. Existing work has concentrated on a small set of manufacturing industries and solely on finished goods inventories. This research focuses on examining production to order as well as production to stock and investigates the interaction of order backlogs and inventories. Further, it will examine the interaction of movements in inventories of materials and supplies with those of finished goods. The second issue to be analyzed is how do credit market conditions influence inventory movements. This is critical for understanding how monetary policy affects the economy. The research focuses on whether borrowing constraints brought about by imperfections in the credit markets causes certain firms to have limited access to credit which in turn influences their pattern of inventory holding behavior. A data base for individual firms which combines data on financial condition with that on inventories and sales will also be constructed and used. ***