Taking Stock

A Critical Assessment of Recent Research on Inventories

Bibliographic Data

ID4029623
AuthorsAlan S Blinder (Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.), Louis J Maccini (Professor of Economics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.)
Year1991
Volume5
Issue1
Pages73-96
Publication date1991-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965
PublisherAmerican Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1257/jep.5.1.73
OpenAlexW1965254863
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited24

Empirical and theoretical aspects of inventory behavior became hot topics in the 1950s and early 1960s. No one seemed to notice the tension that was developing between the emerging macroeconomic and microeconomic views of inventories. Macroeconomists routinely thought of inventories as a destabilizing factor, yet the prevailing micro theory viewed inventories as a stabilizing factor. It was a fascinating question that was barely explored. Instead somewhat inexplicably, interest in inventories dried up, as if inventories were of minor economic significance and little intrinsic interest. By the early 1980s, then, economists once again knew something they had known in the 1950s: that inventory investment is of first-order importance in business cycles. But they were also beginning to realize that the standard production-smoothing/buffer-stock model of inventories was in deep trouble. This paper focuses on developments since that realization

Economics · Financial economics · Macroeconomics · Notice · Political science · Economic Theory and Policy · History · Law · Market Dynamics and Volatility · Monetary Policy and Economic Impact · Finance

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