The Facts About Time: To-Build

Petya Brooks

No 2000/138, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper presents new empirical evidence about the process of plant investment. Using newspaper and trade journal articles, the author collects and analyzes time-to-build data for a sample of Compustat firms. These data suggest that the average construction lead time for new plants is around two years in most industries. Business cycle fluctuations do not affect the length of time-to-build. The investment lead times are generally not sensitive to the size of the projects. Only nine percent of the firms in the sample deviate from their investment schedules and delay or abandon their projects.

Keywords: WP; industry dummy; investment data; utilities industry; plant construction; industry publication; Time-to-build; investment; Compustat firm; point of view; company news; industry composition; transportation industry; Business cycles; Unemployment rate; Data collection; Transportation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2000-08-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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