TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bernard,Andrew B.
AU  - Jensen,J. Bradford
TI  - The Deaths of Manufacturing Plants
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9026
PY  - 2002
Y2  - June 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9026
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9026.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Andrew Bernard
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
100 Tuck Hall
Hanover, NH  03755
Tel: 603/646-0302
Fax: 603/646-0995
E-Mail: Andrew.B.Bernard@dartmouth.edu

J. Bradford Jensen
McDonough School of Business
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057
Tel: 202/687-3767
E-Mail: jbj24@georgetown.edu
AB  - This paper examines the causes of manufacturing plant deaths within and across industries in the U.S. from 1977-1997. The effects of international competition from low wage countries, exporting, ownership structure, product diversity, productivity, geography, and plant characteristics are considered. The probability of shutdowns is higher in industries that face increased competition from low-income countries, especially for low-wage, labor-intensive plants within those industries. Conditional on industry and plant characteristics, closures occur more often at plants that are part of a multi-plant firm and at plants that have recently experienced a change in ownership. Plants owned by U.S. multinationals are more likely to close than similar plants at non-multinational firms. Exits occur less frequently at multi-product plants, at exporters, at plants that pay above average wages, and at large, older, more productive and more capital-intensive plants.
ER  -