We examine whether input–output interactions among industries impact the transmission of monetary policy shocks through the economy. Using vector autoregressive (VAR) methods we find evidence of heterogeneity in the output response to a monetary policy shock in both finished goods industries and intermediate goods industries. While output responses in finished goods industries can be related to heterogeneity in industry characteristics, this relationship is not so obvious for intermediate goods industries. For the intermediate goods industries in our sample, we find new evidence of demand-spillover effects that impact the transmission of monetary policy via input–output linkages.

The problem of controlling input to a stochastic input-output system by accepting or rejecting arriving customers is analyzed as a semi-Markov decision process. Included as special cases are a GI/G/1 model and models with compound input and/or output processes, as well as several previously studied queueing-control models. We establish monotonicity of socially and individually optimal acceptance policies and the more restrictive nature of the former, with random rewards for acceptance and both customer-oriented and system-oriented non-linear waiting costs. Distinctive features of our analysis are (i) that it allows dependent interarrival times and (ii) that the monotonicity proofs do not rely on the standard concavity-preservation arguments.