Interest Rates and the Market for New Light Vehicles

George Hall, Adam Copeland and Louis Maccini ()
Additional contact information
Louis Maccini: Johns Hopkins University

No 94, Working Papers from Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School

Abstract: We study the impact of interest rates changes on both the demand and supply of new light vehicles in an environment where consumers and manufacturers face their own interest rates. An increase in the consumers’ interest rate raises their cost of financing and thus lowers the demand for new vehicles. An increase in the manufacturers’ interest rate raises their cost of holding inventories. Both channels have equilibrium effects that are amplified and propagated over time through inventories, which serve as a way to both smooth production and facilitate greater sales at a given price. Through the estimation of a dynamic stochastic market equilibrium model, we find evidence of both channels at work and of the important role played by inventories. A temporary 100 basis-point increase in both interest rates causes vehicle production to fall 12 percent and sales to fall 3.25 percent at an annual rate in the short run.

Keywords: interest rates; automobiles; inventories; Bayesian maximum likelihood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E44 G31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2015-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac and nep-tre
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http://www.brandeis.edu/economics/RePEc/brd/doc/Brandeis_WP94.pdf First version, 2015 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Interest Rates and the Market for New Light Vehicles (2019)
Working Paper: Interest rates and the market for new light vehicles (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:brd:wpaper:94

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