Share buybacks reduce taxes, commit managers to pay out free cash-flow, and send positive signals to investors. This paper shows that they also transfer wealth from shareholders to the owners of employee stock options and that this transfer increases the price needed to induce shareholders to...

This paper presents a model of investment in a duopoly with firms that choose the scale and timing of investment. Decision-making flexibility and the costs saved by investing in large steps rather than sequences of small steps determine an incumbent's ability to deter entry by a potential...

This paper presents a model of a firm that backdates the granting of executive stock options in order to maximize actual compensation for a given level of reported compensation. The model is used to estimate the magnitude of the difference between the actual and reported values of option grants....

Most applications of real options analysis assume a single decision-maker uses flexibility to maximize a firm's market value. This paper presents an alternative approach suitable for firms with two utility-maximizing decision-makers who have joint responsibility for setting firm policies. In...

We consider the effect of carbon credit payment schemes on forest owners' land use and harvest decisions. We study two possible credit allocation regimes: one where credits are allocated according to the actual amount of carbon sequestered by the trees on a piece of land, and another where...

In this paper we develop a new approach to understanding the behavior of high frequency electricity spot prices. It treats electricity delivered at different times of the day as different commodities, while recognizing that these commodities may be traded on a small number of intra-day markets....

We analyze the investment timing problem of a firm subject to a financing constraint. The threat of future funding shortfalls encourages the firm to accelerate investment beyond the level that is first-best optimal. Thus, our model highlights a new way by which costly external financing can...

Despite being rejected by finance theory, payback continues to be widelyused as a method for evaluating capital investment projects. In situations where investment can be delayed, we show that the value of waiting to invest is an increasing function of payback period. Consequently, the optimal...

This paper demonstrates that new house prices can exceed direct development costs by considerable margins in competitive housing markets with finite price-elasticities of demand and no restrictive land-use regulation. The premium reflects the value of the option to delay developing the marginal...

This paper modifies the standard binomial option pricing approach to real options analysis so that it can incorporate learning options. These options allow a manager to gather information about a potential investment payoff prior to investment occurring. The project's overall volatility will...