[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-324077-105":59,"doc-detail-324077-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","a-users-guide-to-capacity-utilization-measures-part-2","A User's Guide to Capacity-Utilization Measures - Part 2","","Guide to capacity-utilization measurement with a focus on two widely used indexes produced by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve. The text explains how the Census Bureau estimates capacity from the Annual Survey of Manufactures using preferred and practical output definitions, then aggregates plant-level rates with value-added weights. It analyzes strengths and weaknesses, including sampling scope, quarterly coverage, data-quality concerns, and conceptual limitations of the preferred-rate approach.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-users-guide-to-capacity-utilization-measures-part-2/324077/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-users-guide-to-capacity-utilization-measures-part-2/324077.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Liam","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-13","2026-09-21",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What data does the Census Bureau use to estimate capacity utilization?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It uses a subsample from the Annual Survey of Manufactures covering about 450 manufacturing industries and collects fourth-quarter information from roughly 9,000 manufacturing establishments.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How are the Census Bureau’s preferred and practical capacity-utilization measures defined?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The preferred rate divides actual output value by the value of preferred operations, while the practical rate divides actual output value by the value of practical operations, with preferred output constrained not to exceed practical output.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What are key limitations of the Census Bureau approach discussed in the text?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The coverage is limited to manufacturing and to the fourth quarter, data quality may be questionable due to respondent interpretation and incentives, and conceptual issues arise when preferred capacity depends on unit prices and can become uninformative if firms always produce where price equals marginal cost.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},324077,1790455554,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":24,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},8796095461564,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","by Paul W.Bauer and Mary E.Deily  \nThe government are very keen onamassing statistics.They collecttbem,add tbem,raise them to thentb power,take the cube root andprepare uonderful diagrams.Butyou must never forget that everyone of thesefigures comes in the firstinstance from the village uatcbman,wbojust puts down wbat be damnwell pleases.  \nIn the preceding Economic Com-mentary we examined how capacityutilization measures can be useful inevaluating industry price pressures,investment,and war mobilizationcapabilities.An engineering definitionforcapacity utilization is most appro-priate for policymakers interested inwar mobilization,whereas the mini-mum of the short-run average costcurve is the best choice if one is inter-ested in price pressures or investment.  \nIn this issue,we evaluate two of themore widely disseminated indexes ofcapacity utilization,those preparedby the Census Bureau and by theFederal Reserve.The two measurestend to move together(see chart 1),but are constructed quite differently,as we will show.  \n# A User's Guide toCapacity-Utilization Measures\n\n## ■Census Bureau Approach\n\nThe Census Bureau bases its estimatesof capacity utilization on a subsampleof the Annual Survey of Manufactures,which covers about 450 manufactur-ing industries at the four-digit Stan-dard Industrial Classification code level.The survey collects information forthe fourth quarter of the year fromabout 9,000 manufacturing estab-lishments.  \nThe survey is sent to each plant in thesample;thus,firms with more thanone plant may fill out more than onesurvey form.Respondents are askedto report the actua market value ofproduction,the market value of“pre-ferred\"operations(defined as the pro-duction level the firm would prefer tomaintain,at which profits are max-imized and where unit price equalsmarginal cost),and the market valueof \"practical\"operations(defined asthe production level that could rea-sonably be attained using existingworkschedules and machinery andequipment in place).The survey further instructs respondents that thepreferred output level may not exceedthe practical output level.  \nTwo separate capacity-utilizationmeasures are calculated from this data.Thepreferred rate is the market valueof actual output divided by the value  \nJuly 1,1988  \nThe U.S.Census Bureau and the Fed-eral Reserve prepare the two mostwidely disseminated indexes ofcapacity utilization.This article,thesecond of atwo-part series on ca-pacity utilization,explains how theindexes are constructed and analyzesthe advantages and shortcomings ofboth approaches.  \nof preferred output,and the practicalrate is the value of actual output dividedby the value of practical output.Theseplant-level utilization measures arethen aggregated,using value-addedweights,to obtain preferred and prac-tical capacity-utilization indexes foreach industry and for all of manu-facturing.  \n■Advantages and Shortcomings ofthe Census Bureau ApproachThe Census Bureau basesits estimatesof capacity utilization on the mostextensive and statistically sound  \nsample of any reported capacity orcapacity-utilization measures.Twoobvious limitations are that the Cen-sus Bureaus estimates represent onlymanufacturing(which is only 20 to 22percent of GNP),and that the esti-mates cover only the fourth quarterof the year.But there are other,lessobvious,problems with the reportedmeasures as well  \nThe quality of the data may be sus-pect,since it is unclear who respondsto the survey and how they interpretits questions.The respondent maybe a plant manager,a government-reports unit,an accountant,a person-nelofficer,or a plant owner,amongothers.While someone actualy basedat the plant may be best informedabout its operations,such individualsare unlikely to spend their days fllingout government reports.Those whodo fill out these reports may not havethe best information,nor the incen-tive to obtain it.  \nIn addition,the definitions ofthesurveys two measures of capacity suffer from a variety of problems.Pre-ferred capacity","cbCaiev8CrYb4mAJ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiev8CrYb4mAJ","pdf",1064035,"English","# A User's Guide to Capacity-Utilization Measures\n## Census Bureau Approach\n## Advantages and Shortcomings of the Census Bureau Approach","[{\"question\":\"What data does the Census Bureau use to estimate capacity utilization?\",\"answer\":\"It uses a subsample from the Annual Survey of Manufactures covering about 450 manufacturing industries and collects fourth-quarter information from roughly 9,000 manufacturing establishments.\"},{\"question\":\"How are the Census Bureau’s preferred and practical capacity-utilization measures defined?\",\"answer\":\"The preferred rate divides actual output value by the value of preferred operations, while the practical rate divides actual output value by the value of practical operations, with preferred output constrained not to exceed practical output.\"},{\"question\":\"What are key limitations of the Census Bureau approach discussed in the text?\",\"answer\":\"The coverage is limited to manufacturing and to the fourth quarter, data quality may be questionable due to respondent interpretation and incentives, and conceptual issues arise when preferred capacity depends on unit prices and can become uninformative if firms always produce where price equals marginal cost.\"}]","A User's Guide to Capacity-Utilization Measures - Part 2 | PDF",1789966962,13]