Investment, Overhang, and Tax Policy

Austan Goolsbee and

Austan Goolsbee Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics - University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Mihir A. Desai

MAD

Mihir A. Desai Harvard University

Discussants: John V. Leahy and

JVL

John V. Leahy

Kevin A. Hassett

KAH

Kevin A. Hassett

THE PAST DECADE HAS seen an unusual pattern of investment. The boom
of the 1990s generated unusually high investment rates, particularly in
equipment, and the bust of the 2000s witnessed an unusually large decline
in investment. A drop in equipment investment normally accounts for
about 10 to 20 percent of the decline in GDP during a recession; in the
2001 recession, however, it accounted for 120 percent.