Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Investment

Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Investment

Author: Robert S. Pindyck

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 58

ISBN-13:

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Irreversible investment is especially sensitive to such risk factors as volatile exchange rates and uncertainty about tariff structures and future cash flows. If the goal of macroeconomic policy is to stimulate investment, stability and credibility may be more important than tax incentives or interest rates.


Investment under Uncertainty

Investment under Uncertainty

Author: Robert K. Dixit

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-07-14

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 1400830176

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How should firms decide whether and when to invest in new capital equipment, additions to their workforce, or the development of new products? Why have traditional economic models of investment failed to explain the behavior of investment spending in the United States and other countries? In this book, Avinash Dixit and Robert Pindyck provide the first detailed exposition of a new theoretical approach to the capital investment decisions of firms, stressing the irreversibility of most investment decisions, and the ongoing uncertainty of the economic environment in which these decisions are made. In so doing, they answer important questions about investment decisions and the behavior of investment spending. This new approach to investment recognizes the option value of waiting for better (but never complete) information. It exploits an analogy with the theory of options in financial markets, which permits a much richer dynamic framework than was possible with the traditional theory of investment. The authors present the new theory in a clear and systematic way, and consolidate, synthesize, and extend the various strands of research that have come out of the theory. Their book shows the importance of the theory for understanding investment behavior of firms; develops the implications of this theory for industry dynamics and for government policy concerning investment; and shows how the theory can be applied to specific industries and to a wide variety of business problems.


Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory

Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory

Author: Darrell Duffie

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2010-01-27

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 1400829208

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This is a thoroughly updated edition of Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory, the standard text for doctoral students and researchers on the theory of asset pricing and portfolio selection in multiperiod settings under uncertainty. The asset pricing results are based on the three increasingly restrictive assumptions: absence of arbitrage, single-agent optimality, and equilibrium. These results are unified with two key concepts, state prices and martingales. Technicalities are given relatively little emphasis, so as to draw connections between these concepts and to make plain the similarities between discrete and continuous-time models. Readers will be particularly intrigued by this latest edition's most significant new feature: a chapter on corporate securities that offers alternative approaches to the valuation of corporate debt. Also, while much of the continuous-time portion of the theory is based on Brownian motion, this third edition introduces jumps--for example, those associated with Poisson arrivals--in order to accommodate surprise events such as bond defaults. Applications include term-structure models, derivative valuation, and hedging methods. Numerical methods covered include Monte Carlo simulation and finite-difference solutions for partial differential equations. Each chapter provides extensive problem exercises and notes to the literature. A system of appendixes reviews the necessary mathematical concepts. And references have been updated throughout. With this new edition, Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory remains at the head of the field.


Economics of Pessimism and Optimism

Economics of Pessimism and Optimism

Author: Kiyohiko G. Nishimura

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-11-13

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 4431559035

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This is the first book to investigate individual’s pessimistic and optimistic prospects for the future and their economic consequences based on sound mathematical foundations. The book focuses on fundamental uncertainty called Knightian uncertainty, where the probability distribution governing uncertainty is unknown, and it provides the reader with methods to formulate how pessimism and optimism act in an economy in a strict and unified way. After presenting decision-theoretic foundations for prudent behaviors under Knightian uncertainty, the book applies these ideas to economic models that include portfolio inertia, indeterminacy of equilibria in the Arrow-Debreu economy and in a stochastic overlapping-generations economy, learning, dynamic asset-pricing models, search, real options, and liquidity preferences. The book then proceeds to characterizations of pessimistic (ε-contaminated) and optimistic (ε-exuberant) behaviors under Knightian uncertainty and people’s inherent pessimism (surprise aversion) and optimism (surprise loving). Those characterizations are shown to be useful in understanding several observed behaviors in the global financial crisis and in its aftermath. The book is highly recommended not only to researchers who wish to understand the mechanism of how pessimism and optimism affect economic phenomena, but also to policy makers contemplating effective economic policies whose success delicately hinges upon people’s mindsets in the market. Kiyohiko Nishimura is Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Project Research Fellow of the Center for Advanced Research in Finance at The University of Tokyo. Hiroyuki Ozaki is Professor of Economics at Keio University.


Real Options and Investment Under Uncertainty

Real Options and Investment Under Uncertainty

Author: Eduardo S. Schwartz

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 890

ISBN-13: 9780262693189

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The study of investment under uncertainty was stagnant for several decades until developments in real options revitalized the field. The topics covered in this book include the reasons behind the under-investment programme.


Investment and Institutional Uncertainty

Investment and Institutional Uncertainty

Author: Aymo Brunetti

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 46

ISBN-13: 9780821341599

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Looking decades ahead into the future, many informed observers see China moving steadily to the top of the world's economic league. Several sources, including the OECD, forecast that the country will be the world's largest economy by 2020. China's urban economy has been the driving force behind the country's recent trends of accelerated growth. By the same token, deterioration in the urban centers could constrain future growth. The Dynamics of Urban Growth in Three Chinese Cities looks at the interplay between geography, size, and industrial structure that determines the industrial vigor of cities. Their conclusions, abundantly illustrated through the experience of the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou, is that each of these factors must be made to work for the city through effective policymaking. The authors compare these cities with each other in the context of the changes sweeping China's economy, review their history and their reform programs from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, and examine their infrastructure and human capital. The volume includes maps of the cities and their outlying areas and of China's road and rail system, as well as figures depicting the industrial structure of each city. Published for the World Bank by Oxford University Press.


Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics Revisited

Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics Revisited

Author: Chennat Gopalakrishnan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-12-12

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9781138502451

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Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics Revisited is the first attempt to bring together a selection of classic papers in natural resource economics, alongside reflections by highly regarded professionals about how these papers have impacted the field. The seven papers included in this volume are grouped into five sections, representing the five core areas in natural resource economics: the intertemporal problem; externalities and market failure; property rights, institutions and public choice; the economics of exhaustible resources; and the economics of renewable resources. The seven papers are written by distinguished economists, five of them Nobelists. The papers, originally published between 1960 and 2000, addressed key issues in resource production, pricing, consumption, planning, management and policy. The original insights, fresh perspectives and bold vision embodied in these papers had a profound influence on the readership and they became classics in the field. This is the first attempt to publish original commentaries from a diverse group of scholars to identify, probe and analyse the ways in which these papers have impacted and shaped the discourse in natural resource economics. Although directed primarily at an academic audience, this book should also be of great appeal to researchers, policy analysts, and natural resource professionals, in general. This book was published as a series of symposia in the Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research.


Project Flexibility, Agency, and Competition

Project Flexibility, Agency, and Competition

Author: Michael J. Brennan

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 9780195112696

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While most approaches to capital budgeting have used discounted cash flow valuation techniques, recent attention has been given to the valuation of "real options" to look at capital budgeting decisions and project management. Real options are a measure of the value of managerial flexibility and strategic value in capital investment. Because this topic is important but not yet covered adequately, "Innovation, Infrastructure and Strategic Options" fills a major gap in the market. This text deals with issues of R & D and technology options, investments involving learning, infrastructure, competition, strategy, and growth options.


Uncertainty and Unemployment

Uncertainty and Unemployment

Author: Sangyup Choi

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2015-02-23

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 1498356303

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We study the role of uncertainty shocks in explaining unemployment dynamics, separating out the role of aggregate and sectoral channels. Using S&P500 data from the first quarter of 1957 to third quarter of 2014, we construct separate indices to measure aggregate and sectoral uncertainty and compare their effects on the unemployment rate in a standard macroeconomic vector autoregressive (VAR) model. We find that aggregate uncertainty leads to an immediate increase in unemployment, with the impact dissipating within a year. In contrast, sectoral uncertainty has a long-lived impact on unemployment, with the peak impact occurring after two years. The results are consistent with a view that the impact of aggregate uncertainty occurs through a “wait-and-see” mechanism while increased sectoral uncertainty raises unemployment by requiring greater reallocation across sectors.


Nber Macroeconomics Annual 1993

Nber Macroeconomics Annual 1993

Author: Olivier Blanchard

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780262521840

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This annual is designed to stimulate research on problems in applied economics, to bring frontier theoretical developments to a wider audience, and to accelerate the interaction between analytical and empirical research in macroeconomics