This study investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on asymmetric inventory investment (i.e., inventory stickiness or sticky inventory management). Using a sample of 74,912 US firm-year observations over the 1984–2021 period, we observe a significantly negative relationship between EPU and asymmetric inventory investment. Our cross-sectional analyses reveal that managers' pessimistic expectations regarding future demand and higher cost of funding and maintaining capacity are the channels through which EPU affects asymmetric inventory behavior. Moreover, this negative impact is more pronounced for firms that face longer-duration uncertainty, rely heavily on government purchases, and have higher firm-specific political risk. Lastly, we find that reducing inventory stickiness leads to improved firm performance during periods of increasing policy uncertainty.

中文翻译：

---

政策不确定性和库存行为：来自美国制造业的证据

本研究调查了经济政策不确定性（EPU）对不对称库存投资（即库存粘性或粘性库存管理）的影响。使用 1984 年至 2021 年期间 74,912 个美国公司年度观察样本，我们观察到 EPU 与不对称库存投资之间存在显着负相关关系。我们的横断面分析表明，管理者对未来需求的悲观预期以及较高的融资成本和维持产能是 EPU 影响不对称库存行为的渠道。此外，对于那些面临长期不确定性、严重依赖政府采购以及企业特定政治风险较高的企业来说，这种负面影响更为明显。最后，