Measuring capital utilization with the Survey of Plant Capacity (June 2011)


This paper provides references and data for measures of capital utilization based on the Survey of Plant Capacity.  This work was conducted in the University of Michigan Census Research Data Center (MCRDC) under the project "Using the Survey of Plant Capacity to Measure Capital Utilization" (Project MC-286) approved by the Census Bureau.  This project uses the microdata from the Survey of Plant  Capacity and other Census datasets.  Industry aggregates are  released with the  approval of the Census Bureau.

Working paper
Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Matthew D. Shapiro. "Using the Survey of Plant Capacity to Measure Capital Utilization:"   US Census Bureau.  Center for Economic Studies Discussion Paper 11-18 (July 2011).  pdf

Technical Memorandum
Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Matthew D. Shapiro. "Using the Survey of Plant Capacity to Measure Capital Utilization:  Technical Memodandum"  Center for Economic Studies.  US Census Bureau.  Project MC-286 (January 2009).  pdf

Dataset users guide  Caution.  Read the papers and users guide before using the time-series.  The dataset includes both the recommended measures of capital utilization and alternate aggregations that are produced to illustrate aggregation problems discussed in the papers.
Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Matthew D. Shapiro. "Using the Survey of Plant Capacity to Measure Capital Utilization:  Users Guide"  (June 2011).  pdf

Data (Stata datasets):  3-digit   2-digit   aggregate  (If does not download or open on click, try right clicking and "save link as.")

Survey of Plant Capacity
Census Bureau SPC WWW site, Survey and Instructions


US Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies (CES),  Michigan Census Research Data Center    

Return to Matthew Shapiro Home Page | Department of Economics | University of Michigan