Optimal Adoption of Complementary Technologies

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2000
Volume: 90
Issue: 1
Pages: 15-29

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

When a production process requires two extremely complementary inputs, conventional wisdom holds that a firm would always upgrade them simultaneously. We show, however, that if upgrading each input involves a fixed cost, the firm may upgrade them at different dates, "asynchronously." This insight helps us understand why productivity rises with the age of a plant, why investment in structures is more spiked than equipment investment, and why plants have spare capacity. The bigger point of the paper is that complementarity does not necessarily imply comovement--not even for a single decision maker.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:90:y:2000:i:1:p:15-29
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25