Risk Aversion, Price Uncertainty, and Irreversibility of Investments

Abstract

This paper generalizes the theory of irreversible investment under uncertainty by allowing for risk averse investors in the absence of complete markets. Until now this theory has only been developed in the cases of risk neutrality, or risk aversion in combination with complete markets. We introduce the class of logistic absolute risk aversion (LARA) utility functions to examine the effects of risk aversion, investment size, and other parameters on the optimal investment decision. We find that risk aversion reduces investment, particularly if the investment size is large. Moreover, we find that a rise in uncertainty increases the value of deferring irreversible investments. This effect is stronger for high levels of risk aversion. In addition, we provide, to the best of our knowlegde for the first time, analytical comparative statics formulas for the risk neutral investor.