The Effects of Irreversibility and Uncertainty on Capital Accumulation

The Effects of Irreversibility and Uncertainty on Capital Accumulation PDF Author: Andrew B. Abel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Capital
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
When investment decisions cannot be reversed and returns to capital are uncertain, the firm faces a higher user cost of capital than if it could reverse its decisions. This higher user cost tends to reduce the firm's capital stock. Opposing this effect is the irreversibility constraint itself: when the constraint binds, the firm would like to sell capital but cannot. This effect tends to increase the firm's capital stock. We show that a firm with irreversible investment may have a higher or a lower expected capital stock, even in the long run, compared to an otherwise identical firm with reversible investment. Furthermore, an increase in uncertainty can either increase or decrease the expected long-run capital stock under irreversibility relative to that under reversibility. However, changes in the expected growth rate of demand, the interest rate, the capital share in output, and the price elasticity of demand all have unambiguous effects.

The Effects of Irreversibility and Uncertainty on Capital Accumulation

The Effects of Irreversibility and Uncertainty on Capital Accumulation PDF Author: Andrew B. Abel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Capital
Languages : en
Pages : 60

Get Book Here

Book Description
When investment decisions cannot be reversed and returns to capital are uncertain, the firm faces a higher user cost of capital than if it could reverse its decisions. This higher user cost tends to reduce the firm's capital stock. Opposing this effect is the irreversibility constraint itself: when the constraint binds, the firm would like to sell capital but cannot. This effect tends to increase the firm's capital stock. We show that a firm with irreversible investment may have a higher or a lower expected capital stock, even in the long run, compared to an otherwise identical firm with reversible investment. Furthermore, an increase in uncertainty can either increase or decrease the expected long-run capital stock under irreversibility relative to that under reversibility. However, changes in the expected growth rate of demand, the interest rate, the capital share in output, and the price elasticity of demand all have unambiguous effects.

The Effects of Irreversibility and Uncertainty on Capital Accumulation

The Effects of Irreversibility and Uncertainty on Capital Accumulation PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The Effects of Irreversebility and Uncertainty on Capital Accumulation

The Effects of Irreversebility and Uncertainty on Capital Accumulation PDF Author: Andrew B. Abel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description


Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Investment

Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Investment PDF Author: Robert S. Pindyck
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Capital investments
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description
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 and Uncertainty

Investment and Uncertainty PDF Author: Mikael Carlsson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This paper provides empirical evidence on the dynamic effects of uncertainty on firm-level capital accumulation. A novelty in this paper is that the firm-level uncertainty indicator is motivated and derived from a theoretical model, the neoclassical investment model with time to build. This model also serves as the base for the empirical work, where an error-correction approach is employed. I find a negative effect of uncertainty on capital accumulation, both in the short run and the long run. This outcome cannot be explained by the model alone. Instead, the results suggest that the predominant mechanism at work stems from irreversibility constraints.

Capital Accumulation Under Uncertain Lifetimes

Capital Accumulation Under Uncertain Lifetimes PDF Author: Eatzaz Ahmad
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Capital investments
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description


Irreversible Decisions under Uncertainty

Irreversible Decisions under Uncertainty PDF Author: Svetlana Boyarchenko
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540737464
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Here, two highly experienced authors present an alternative approach to optimal stopping problems. The basic ideas and techniques of the approach can be explained much simpler than the standard methods in the literature on optimal stopping problems. The monograph will teach the reader to apply the technique to many problems in economics and finance, including new ones. From the technical point of view, the method can be characterized as option pricing via the Wiener-Hopf factorization.

Uncertainty, Investment and Capital Accumulation

Uncertainty, Investment and Capital Accumulation PDF Author: Guiying Wu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Investments
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description


Irreversible Investment with Embodied Technological Progress

Irreversible Investment with Embodied Technological Progress PDF Author: Bruno de Oliveira Cruz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In this paper, we propose to explain capital accumulation in a stochastic framework by taking into account the two main motives for investment. Specifically, firms invest to expand capacity and to replace old machines. The model considers irreversible investment under uncertainty and embodied technological progress. It is shown to be consistent with the following empirical observations: Investment is lumpy and infrequent at the firm level; firms can invest even if they have not reached full capacity and technological progress is largely investment specific. We extend the paper of Pindyck (1988), by introducing embodied technological progress. To produce firms use irreversible capital, perfectly flexible labor, and energy whose price is stochastic. Capital and energy are complementary. We show that uncertainty makes firms to postpone investment, increasing the age of the oldest machine and reducing the proportion of new machines in the total stock of capital. We provide an exercise with tax credit to acquire new machines; it is shown that under the hypothesis of embodiment and uncertainty, the tax credit is not effective.

Irreversibility and Aggregate Investment

Irreversibility and Aggregate Investment PDF Author: Giuseppe Bertola
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Investments
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
Investment is often irreversible, in that installed capital has little or no value unless used in production. In the presence of ongoing uncertainty, an individual firm's irreversible investment policy optimally alternates short bursts of positive gross investment to periods of inaction, when the installed capital stock is allowed to depreciate. The behavior of aggregate investment series is characterized by sluggish, continuous adjustment instead. We argue in this paper that aggregate dynamics should be interpreted in terms of unsynchronized irreversible investment decisions by heterogenous firms, rather than in terms of ad-hoc adjustment cost functions in a representative-agent framework. We propose a closed-form solution for a realistic model of sequential irreversible investment, characterize the aggregate implications of microeconomic irreversibility and idiosyncratic uncertainty, and interpret U.S. data in light of the theoretical results.