Optimal Investment Behavior Research Articles

The Use of Market Data and Accounting Data in Hedging Against Consumer Price Inflation

This paper examines the use of alternative information sets in the construction of inflation hedge portfolios. The study is motivated by consideration of the investor's problem in a multiperiod world. Several authors (e.g., Merton [1973] and Breeden [1979]) have shown that in a multiperiod setting, optimal investment behavior will, in general, involve holding portfolios that can be used to hedge against changes in certain relevant states of nature. One potentially relevant state of nature is the rate of inflation in general prices (Jones [1982] and Elton, Gruber, and Rentzler [1983]). In contrast to prior related research, the empirical results indicate that it is possible to construct inflation hedge portfolios successfully, if certain accounting information is used. However, portfolios constructed on the basis of historical security price information do not serve as effective hedges. One contribution of this paper is to demonstrate the potential usefulness of accounting information to a price-taking investor. Although financial statements play an important role in the setting of equilibrium

Optimal Sequential Investment Decisions Under Conditions of Uncertainty

This paper presents a mathematical model of sequential investment behavior under conditions of uncertainty. The model addresses the problem of an investor with access to a limited pool of capital, who makes sequential decisions on long-lasting investments, under uncertainty as to the timing or the quality of future opportunities. We derive optimal investment strategies for the cases where the return from investment is a convex or concave function, we present closed form solutions for commonly adopted return functions, and we evaluate how the optimal investment behavior should change when changes occur in the environment, or the underlying probability distributions. In addition, we analyze three modifications of the problem. The results presented in this paper extend previous results on investment behavior for long-lasting (irreversible) decisions; in addition, some results are in accordance with existing ones from portfolio theory and/or search theory.

Increasing returns to scale and the reverse flexible accelerator

We show that the flexible accelerator principle characterizes optimal investment behavior only when the firm's technology exhibits decreasing returns to scale throughout. When there are increasing returns we show that there is a range in which investment increases as the capital stock increases towards its long-run equilibrium level.

Dynamic behavior of the firm with adjustment costs, under regulatory constraint

This paper investigates the optimal investment behavior of the regulated (profit-maximizing) firm in a dynamic context. The modern adjustment cost approach to investment is incorporated into the theory of a regulated firm, which has typically been discussed in a static framework. This paper thus generalizes the well-known Averch-Johnson thesis which is proved in the static context. The paper investigates both the finite and infinite horizon cases.

Return-to-normal expectations and investment demand functions

This paper analyzes an adjustment-cost model of optimal investment behavior under return-to-normal expectations. The model yields two implications that are of interest for the interpretation of empirical work on investment behavior. One is that the model rationalizes the proposition that only permanent, as distinct from temporary, changes in expected prices will have a strong sustained effect on investment. A second is that the model provides an explanation for the humped-shaped nature of the lag distributions that have been estimated in the empirical literature.

Environmental regulation and optimal investment behavior: A micro-economic analysis

This paper develops a simple optimal control model of the firm's investment decisions in the presence of environmental restrictions. The firm is assumed to jointly decide the optimal levels of gross investment, scrappage of capital, and maintenance expenditures. The results of the model indicate that all investment decisions, including both abatement equipment and productive capital, are affected by the manner in which environmental regulations are designed. Moreover, these impacts can be further altered if other unrelated regulations, such as rate base regulation, are concurrently imposed on the firm.

Taxation and investment behaviour under uncertainty ? A multiperiod portfolio analysis

This paper deals with the effects of a proportional income tax with full loss offset provisions on optimal investment behaviour under uncertainty. For convenience we only consider investments in two assets: one risky asset with a random rate of return and one riskless asset with a secure rate of return. We shall see that for a certain class of intertemporal preferences the total tax effects on the optimal investment in the risky asset can be separated in a saving effect and a portfolio effect with the former influencing the optimal level of savings and the latter influencing the composition of the optimal savings, i.e., the choice between investments in the risky and riskless asset.

Mathematical Programming Models for Capital Budgeting--A Survey, Generalization, and Critique

Until very recently, in most work on normative models for capital investment planning, it has been assumed that availability of capital is unconstrained; i.e., that money may be freely borrowed or lent at a single market rate of interest, and that no other constraints affect the proper choice of available productive investment projects to be undertaken. Since practical situations almost universally do involve such constraints, the traditional theories have, for the most part, been an unsatisfactory guide to achievement of optimal capital investment behavior in the real world.