Reallocation and Technology: Evidence from the US Steel Industry

Allan Collard-Wexler () and Jan De Loecker

American Economic Review, 2015, vol. 105, issue 1, 131-71

Abstract: We measure the impact of a drastic new technology for producing steel--the minimill--on industry-wide productivity in the US steel industry, using unique plant-level data between 1963 and 2002. The sharp increase in the industry's productivity is linked to this new technology through two distinct mechanisms: (i) the mere displacement of the older technology (vertically integrated producers) was responsible for a third of the increase in the industry's productivity, and (ii) increased competition, due the minimill expansion, drove a productivity resurgence at the surviving vertical integrated producers and, consequently, the productivity of the industry as a whole. (JEL D24, L13, L23, L61, M11, O31, O33)

JEL-codes: D24 L13 L23 L61 M11 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20130090
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (96)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.20130090 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/app/10501/20130090_app.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10501/20130090_data.zip (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10501/20130090_ds.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Reallocation and Technology: Evidence From The U.S. Steel Industry (2013)
Working Paper: Reallocation and Technology: Evidence from the U.S. Steel Industry (2013)
Working Paper: Reallocation and technology: evidence from the U.S. steel industry (2013)
Working Paper: Reallocation and technology: evidence from the U.S. steel industry (2013)
Working Paper: Reallocation and Technology: Evidence from the U.S. Steel Industry (2013)
Working Paper: Reallocation and Technology: Evidence from the U.S. Steel Industry (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:105:y:2015:i:1:p:131-71

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().