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Fixed Capital Adjustment: Is Latin America Different?

R. GASTON GELOS; Alberto Isgut1

1 Wesleyan University

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2001

We examine capital adjustment patterns using two large and largely novel plant-level data sets from the manufacturing sectors of Colombia and Mexico. The data suggest that irreversibilities play a more important role than in more-advanced economies. However, we do not find support for the presence of increasing returns in the adjustment cost technology, such as arising from fixed costs. Firms go through periods of inaction and rarely sell capital, but they do not invest at discrete times only. An examination of the dynamic patterns of adjustment of factors differing in their flexibility supports this interpretation. © 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

DOI
10.1162/003465301753237795
Volume
83 (4)
Pages
717-726
Language
en
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