Research Details

Abstract

Investment in physical capital collapsed during the Great Recession, and while growth subsequently resumed, the capital stock remains below trend (Hall 2014). We explore firm-level data on investment and document that investment fell relative to fundamentals at the turn of the millenium - well before the Great Recession. This downturn in investment coincides with a shift in employment toward services and cognitive skills - the "polarization" described by Autor, Katz, and Kearney (2006), as a possible consequence of off-shoring and automation. An analogous sorting of firms into industries shows a shift of investment toward spatially "grounded" industries, such as energy and telecommunications, from which capital cannot be relocated. Investment shifts away from production sectors, such as manufacturing, which can be relocated. While high tech firms grow in number and value, this growth is associated with a flat share of capital investment. For these sectors, we document a shift toward intangible, rather than physical, capital. The "hollowing out" of investment, like labor, carves out manufacturing and production sectors, leaving grounded industries that are less susceptible to off-shoring and cognitively-intensive industries that are growing in intangible, rather than fixed, capital.

Type

Article

Author(s)

Lewis Alexander, Janice C. Eberly

Date Published

2018

Citations

Alexander, Lewis, and Janice C. Eberly. 2018. Investment Hollowing Out. IMF Economic Review.(1): Pg. 5+.