Determinants of “Sticky Costs”: An Analysis of Cost Behavior using United States Air Transportation Industry Data

ABSTRACT This paper examines determinants of sticky cost behavior, costs that increase faster than they decrease as demand fluctuates. The majority of the literature infers that sticky costs arise because managers retain idle capacity as demand falls, but add capacity as demand grows. I use United States Air Transportation industry data to confirm that managers do retain idle capacity when demand falls. However, I also find that sticky costs arise because managers lower selling prices to utilize existing capacity when demand falls, but add capacity (rather than raise selling prices) when demand grows. Finally, I find that sticky costs arise because managers incur more cost when adding capacity as demand grows than they incur when they add capacity as demand falls. Conversely, I find evidence of anti-sticky costs that occur because managers save more cost by removing capacity when demand falls than they save by removing capacity when demand grows. Data Availability: Data are available from the author upon request.