Nicholls, C and Murdoch, I J (2003) Construction industry capacity utilization and its implications. In: Greenwood, D J (ed.) Proceedings of 19th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2003, Brighton, UK.
Abstract
This investigation began with an attempt to determine a market signal based indicator of capacity utilisation. Traditional methods of measuring an industry’s capacity rely on a Cobb-Douglas production function equation, where capital, labour and technology are variables which give an indication of an industry’s (or company’s) productive potential. For the construction industry, most plant and machinery is hired, and it is very difficult to produce such a production function. As a result, this paper tries to estimate periods of high and low capacity utilisation by different ways of de-trending construction output. It then proceeds to construct a model to predict capacity utilisation. Finally, it estimates an equation for construction inflation, using capacity utilisation as an explanatory variable.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | capacity utilisation; inflation; output |
| Index terms: | estimate, construction industry, construction output, inflation, investigation |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, operations management, financial and cost management, economic analysis, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Project Management, Business Strategy, Cost Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here