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Papers written by Author(s): 'Mark Curtis'

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  • Working Paper

    Capital Investment and Labor Demand

    February 2022

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-22-04

    We study how bonus depreciation, a policy designed to lower the cost of capital, impacted investment and labor demand in the US manufacturing sector. Difference-in-differences estimates using restricted-use US Census Data on manufacturing establishments show that this policy increased both investment and employment, but did not lead to wage or productivity gains. Using a structural model, we show that the primary effect of the policy was to increase the use of all inputs by lowering overall costs of production. The policy further stimulated production employment due to the complementarity of production labor and capital. Supporting this conclusion, we nd that investment is greater in plants with lower labor costs. Our results show that recent policies that incentivize capital investment do not lead manufacturing plants to replace workers with machines.
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  • Working Paper

    EVIDENCE OF AN 'ENERGY-MANAGEMENT GAP' IN U.S. MANUFACTURING: SPILLOVERS FROM FIRM MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO ENERGY EFFICIENCY

    April 2013

    Working Paper Number:

    CES-13-25

    In this paper we merge a well-cited survey of firm management practices into confidential U.S. Census microdata to examine whether generic, i.e. non-energy specific, firm management practices, 'spillover' to enhance energy efficiency in the United States. We find the relationship in U.S. plants to be more nuanced than past research on UK plants has suggested. Most management techniques have beneficial spillovers to energy efficiency, but an emphasis on generic targets, conditional on other management practices, results in spillovers that increase energy intensity. Our specification controls for industry specific effects at a detailed 6-digit NAICS level and shows that this result is stronger for firms in energy intensive industries. We interpret the empirical result that generic management practices do not necessarily spillover to improved energy performance as evidence of an 'energy management gap.'
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