We propose a parsimonious general equilibrium extension of the Black-Scholes economy that helps clarify how options' prices, expected returns, risk exposure, and optimal exercise policies respond to variations in the risk exposure of the underlying asset. The model allows one to separate the...

We examine the impact on an R&D valuation and its investment timing of abrupt events, options facing paradise (blockbusters) and purgatory (catastrophes). We show that the presence of a special case of Lévy jumps can model positive and negative effects in the investment opportunity even when...

Governments and corporations frequently auction assets with embedded real options using both cash and contingent bids. I characterize equilibrium bidding and option exercise strategies, and find that the moral hazard associated with uncontractible investment timing inefficiently and...

Avian flu has been the focus of significant attention since 2004, when there were reports of human infections in Asia from the avian flu H5N1 strain. To prevent the catastrophic mortality of mankind, several governments are stockpiling antivirals and pharmaceutical firms are increasing their...

Motivated by the real-world challenges of real options evaluation faced by many companies when commodity prices exhibit dramatic volatility and project values can become negative, this paper presents a generalized framework for solving a multifactor real options problem by approximating the...

We use a novel and unique dataset to measure attention to securities—individuals’ stock-following over time (watchlists)—to provide evidence that attention to securities reacts differently to various types of uncertainty. We find that market-wide uncertainty, measured by the VIX index,...

The paper proposes a novel direction to rationalize and quantify investors' flipping behavior and its effect on underpricing in IPOs through the use of a structural approach mode. The outcome is a proxy value that replicates investors' flipping behavior. When tested empirically, the model...

We analyze returns to lumpy projects with multiple investors. Since each investor's commitment increases the likelihood of project completion it exerts a positive externality on other investors. We show that due to this externality either a rise in the cost of abandoning the project or decreased...

This paper describes a real options valuation method for situations where the underlying asset may have negative values and the underlying project present value distribution is something of the shape between normal and lognormal distribution causing skewness to the rate of return distribution....