Int. J. Production Economics 93–94 (2005) 61–73 Macroeconomic characteristics and inventory investment: a multi-country study Attila Chika´n à , Erzse´ bet Kova´ cs, Tu¨ nde Ta´ trai Department of Business Economics, Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration, Veres Palne u.36, Budapest 1053, Hungary Abstract The paper is a new element in a series of studies analyzing macroeconomic inventory behavior by use of multi- country data. In this paper, seven hypotheses are tested with positive result. These hypotheses include subjects like relations of inventories with growth and with some other macroeconomic indicators of the use of GDP and the long- term tendencies of global inventory formations. Multivariate statistical analysis is used for evaluation. r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Macroeconomic inventory investment; GDP components; OECD countries; Multivariate statistics; Inventory behavior 1. Introduction Even though economic analysis of inventory behavior has a vast literature, very few studies were published about some of the most elementary questions on inventories in an international perspective: what conclusions can be drawn from the data and experiences of the various countries? What kinds of generalizations can be made about inventory behavior of the really different economies? In some previous papers we have already made some—perhaps not unsuccessful—attempts to find answers to a few of the related questions. (A summary of previous results is given in Chika´n and Ta´trai, 2003.) Here we continue this with a new methodology: extended multivariate statistical calculations are applied. We have used the OECD database, containing 14 of the most developed economies of the world. The following countries were included (from 1968 to 1997): Belgium Germany a Spain Canada Ireland Sweden Denmark Italy United Kingdom Finland Japan United States France Netherlands a West Germany until 1994. ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/dsw 0925-5273/$-see front matter r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2004.06.006 à Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +36-1-317-2959. E-mail address: chikan@mercur.bke.hu (A. Chika´n).