الفهرس 
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Abstract
Studies of the short- run behavior of the United States economy emphasize the role played by inventories in determining the stability of the system. This role is not revealed by the magnitude of inventory stocks relative to the gross output of the economy. Nor is it revealed by the size of inventory investment relative to the gross investment in the economy; for in 1966 business inventory investment amounted to a mere 1.6% of GNP, and to only 11.3% of the gross private domestic investment [20]
The role of changes in inventories can be best appreciated when one considers them relative to the rates of change in the gross national output. Darling and Lovell [5] point out that in the four contractions during the period 1948- 1962 the decline in inventory investment accounted for about 60% of the decline in GNP. In the first year of the four periods of expansion the increase in inventory investment accounted for about 58% of the increase in GNP. Hence, economists labeled these short- term fluctuations in the Postwar U. S. economy as “Inventory Cycles”.
The study of the determinants of inventory behavior, therefore, assumes paramount importance in the study of the short- run dynamic properties of the economic system.