American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 1 2015
Reallocation and Technology: Evidence from the US Steel Industry
open access
Abstract
We measure the impact of a drastic new technology for producing steel—the minimill—on industry-wide productivity in the US steel industry, using unique plant-level data between 1963 and 2002. The sharp increase in the industry's productivity is linked to this new technology through two distinct mechanisms: (i ) the mere displacement of the older technology (vertically integrated producers) was responsible for a third of the increase in the industry's productivity, and (ii ) increased competition, due the minimill expansion, drove a productivity resurgence at the surviving vertical integrated producers and, consequently, the productivity of the industry as a whole.
- DOI
- 10.1257/aer.20130090
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 131-171
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref