Is There News in Inventories?

Christoph Görtz, Christopher Gunn and Thomas Lubik

No 20-03, Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Abstract: This paper identifies total factor productivity (TFP) news shocks using standard VAR methodology and documents a new stylized fact: in response to news about future increases in TFP, inventories rise and comove positively with other major macroeconomic aggregates. The authors show that the standard theoretical model used to capture the effects of news shocks cannot replicate this fact when extended to include inventories. To explain the empirical inventory behavior, they develop a framework that relies on the presence of knowledge capital accumulated through a learning-by-doing process. The desire to take advantage of higher future TFP through knowledge capital drives output and hours choices on the arrival of news and leads to inventory accumulation alongside other macroeconomic variables. The broad-based comovement the authors document supports the view that news shocks are an important driver of aggregate fluctuations.

Keywords: News shocks; business cycles; inventories; knowledge capital; VAR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E2 E3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2020-05-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://www.richmondfed.org/-/media/richmondfedorg ... wp20-03_appendix.pdf Supplementary Appendix (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Is there news in inventories? (2022)
Working Paper: Is There News in Inventories? (2021)
Working Paper: Is There News in Inventories? (2020)
Working Paper: Is There News in Inventories? (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedrwp:88428

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DOI: 10.21144/wp20-03

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