← Search

Empirical Research and the Rate of Interest

Alan Spiro

The Review of Economics and Statistics 1958

AS is well known, economic theory indicates that, in general, the interest rate will, ceteris paribus, have a greater effect upon longterm than upon short-term investment.' The purpose of this paper is to present a statistical test of this hypothesis. If this hypothesis is correct, we should expect that during periods when the interest rate fell that longer-term investment would tend to increase more rapidly (or decrease more slowly) than shorter-term investment, and conversely. On the average, investment by producers in construction represents a longer-term investment than investment in producers durables. In turn investment in producers durables is, on the average, of longer-term than investment in inventory. In addition, investment in residential construction is, on the average, of longer term than investment in consumers durables. The investment data for the economy as a whole can be conveniently contained within two fractions:

DOI
10.2307/1926481
Volume
40 (1)
Pages
52
Export
BibTeX
Sources
openalex crossref