Papers written by Author(s): 'Cheryl Grim'
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Viewing papers 11 through 14 of 14
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Working PaperNewly Recovered Microdata on U.S. Manufacturing Plants from the 1950s and 1960s: Some Early Glimpses
September 2011
Working Paper Number:
CES-11-29
Longitudinally-linked microdata on U.S. manufacturing plants are currently available to researchers for 1963, 1967, and 1972-2009. In this paper, we provide a first look at recently recovered manufacturing microdata files from the 1950s and 1960s. We describe their origins and background, discuss their contents, and begin to explore their sample coverage. We also begin to examine whether the available establishment identifier(s) allow record linking. Our preliminary analyses suggest that longitudinally-linked Annual Survey of Manufactures microdata from the mid-1950s through the present ' containing 16 years of additional data ' appears possible though challenging. While a great deal of work remains, we see tremendous value in extending the manufacturing microdata series back into time. With these data, new lines of research become possible and many others can be revisited.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperCharacteristics of the Top R&D Performing Firms in the U.S.: Evidence from the Survey of Industrial R&D
September 2010
Working Paper Number:
CES-10-33
Innovation drives economic growth and productivity growth, and as such, indicators of innovative activity such as research and development (R&D) expenditures are of paramount importance. We combine Census confidential microdata from two sources in order to examine the characteristics of the top R&D performing firms in the U.S. economy. We use the Survey of Industrial Research and Development (SIRD) to identify the top 200 R&D performing firms in 2003 and, to the extent possible, to trace the evolution of these firms from 1957 to 2007. The Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) further extends our knowledge about these firms and enables us to make comparisons to the U.S. economy. By linking the SIRD and the LBD we are able to create a detailed portrait of the evolution of the top R&D performing firms in the U.S.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperProductivity Dispersion and Input Prices: The Case of Electricity
September 2008
Working Paper Number:
CES-08-33
We exploit a rich new database on Prices and Quantities of Electricity in Manufacturing (PQEM) to study electricity productivity in the U.S. manufacturing sector. The database contains nearly 2 million customer-level observations (i.e., manufacturing plants) from 1963 to 2000. It allows us to construct plant-level measures of price paid per kWh, output per kWh, output per dollar spent on electric power and labor productivity. Using this database, we first document tremendous dispersion among U.S. manufacturing plants in electricity productivity measures and a strong negative relationship between price per kWh and output per kWh hour within narrowly defined industries. Using an IV strategy to isolate exogenous price variation, we estimate that the average elasticity of output per kWh with respect to the price of electricity is about 0.6 during the period from 1985 to 2000. We also develop evidence that this price-physical efficiency tradeoff is stronger for industries with bigger electricity cost shares. Finally, we develop evidence that stronger competitive pressures in the output market lead to less dispersion among manufacturing plants in price per kWh and in electricity productivity measures. The strength of competition effects on dispersion is similar for electricity productivity and labor productivity.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperElectricity Pricing to U.S. Manufacturing Plants, 1963-2000
October 2007
Working Paper Number:
CES-07-28
We construct a large customer-level database and use it to study electricity pricing patterns from 1963 to 2000. The data show tremendous cross-sectional dispersion in the electricity prices paid by manufacturing plants, reflecting spatial price differences and quantity discounts. Price dispersion declined sharply between 1967 and 1977 because of erosion in quantity discounts. To estimate the role of cost factors and markups in quantity discounts, we exploit differences among utilities in the purchases distribution of their customers. The estimation results reveal that supply costs per watt-hour decline by more than half over the range of customer-level purchases in the data, regardless of time period. Prior to the mid 1970s, marginal price and marginal cost schedules with respect to annual purchase quantity are remarkably similar, in line with efficient pricing. In later years, marginal supply costs exceed marginal prices for smaller manufacturing customers by 10% or more. The evidence provides no support for a standard Ramsey-pricing interpretation of quantity discounts on the margin we study. Spatial dispersion in retail electricity prices among states, counties and utility service territories is large, rises over time for smaller purchasers, and does not diminish as wholesale power markets expand in the 1990s.View Full Paper PDF
