This paper shows that the presence of conditional staging in R&D (Research & Development) has a critical impact on portfolio risk, and changes diversification arguments when a portfolio is constructed. When R&D projects exhibit option-like characteristics, correlation between projects plays a...

This paper focuses on the impact of debt on the optimal policy for investment and hiring, in the light of the theory of real options. We consider a stochastic demand for the product sold by the company. We examine in particular the investment and hiring choices when, in case of enhancement...

The characteristics of large, sometimes giga-sized investments of complex engineering systems often require a multidisciplinary decision-making process. The investment parameters on which the decision-making is based, the optimality criteria underlying this process and the identification of the...

This paper addresses the classical real options problem taking debt renegotiation into account. A critical feature is that equityholders can freely initiate debt renegotiation at most once after debt issuance. We provide explicit solutions of the pricing and timing of the option to start a...

This paper provides a two-stage decision framework in which two or more parties exercise a jointly held real option. We show that a single party's timing decision is always socially efficient if it precedes bargaining on the terms of sharing. However, if the sharing rule is agreed before the...

This paper investigates the effect of uncertainty on R&D investment. We find that firms invest more in R&D when they face higher uncertainty, as measured by idiosyncratic return volatility. We further show that the effect is more pronounced for firms in more competitive industries as well as for...

This paper investigates how conservative accounting system can mitigate the agency problem between the manager and shareholders of a firm, which arises from information asymmetry. In this study I assume that the firm has a privileged right to engage in an irreversible discrete project, i.e., it...

We examine the joint optimization of financial leverage and irreversible capacity investment in a real options framework with risky debt and endogenous interest costs. Higher capacity, ceteris paribus, increases operating leverage and default probability, but lowers ex post adjustment costs and...

This paper examines how contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) outstanding impact on expansion investment under exogenous and endogenous conversion threshold. We provide a relatively formal method to price general corporate securities. We find that under an exogenous conversion threshold, there is...