Real options in strategic investment games between two asymmetric firms

This paper examines strategic investment games between two firms that compete for optimal entry in a project that generates uncertain revenue flows. Under asymmetry on both the sunk cost of investment and revenue flows of the two competing firms, we investigate the value of real investment options and strategic interaction of investment decisions. Compared to earlier models that only allow for asymmetry on sunk cost, our model demonstrates a richer set of strategic interactions of entry decisions. We provide a complete characterization of pre-emptive, dominant and simultaneous equilibriums by analyzing the relative value of leader’s and follower’s optimal investment thresholds. In a duopoly market with negative externalities, a firm may reduce loss of real options value by selecting appropriate pre-emptive entry. When one firm has a dominant advantage over its competitor, both the dominant firm and dominated firm enter at their respective leader’s and follower’s optimal thresholds. When the pre-emptive thresholds of both firms happen to coincide, the two firms enter simultaneously. Under positive externalities, firms do not compete to lead.     

Hedging entry and exit decisions: optimizing location under exchange rate uncertainty

^** Email: alexru00{at}ms41.hinet.net^*** Email: ctlin{at}mail.yust.edu.tw The Cobb–Douglas production function with Abel's (1983,Am. Econ. Rev., 173, 228–233) model is extended herein,and real options analysis (ROA) for entry–exit decision-makingestablished utilizing Dixit's (1989b) decision model under exchangerate uncertainty. This work considers the effects of real exchangerates on strategies that determine the locations of productionby firms that are entering markets in two countries. The ROAis also adopted to evaluate the switching location between twocountries. A continuous-time model optimization problem is solvedin closed-form. This provides a useful beginning to an importantanalysis of the effects on industry of exchange rate fluctuationswhen the optimal entry (exit) trigger for transferring locationsis important for a basic global logistics model. Furthermore,a myopic solution of the optimal entry (exit) trigger, sensitivityanalysis and some characteristics of the optimal productionstrategy are sought. This paper contributes to the problem ofchoice of foreign production strategy.     

A sample-path approach to optimal position liquidation

We consider the problem of optimal position liquidation where the expected cash flow stream due to transactions is maximized in the presence of temporary or permanent market impact. A stochastic programming approach is used to construct trading strategies that differentiate decisions with respect to the observed market conditions, and can accommodate various types of trading constraints. As a scenario model, we use a collection of sample paths representing possible future realizations of state variable processes (price, trading volume etc.), and employ a heuristical technique of sample-path grouping, which can be viewed as a generalization of the standard nonanticipativity constraints.     

企业聘用职业经理人的最优时机及其委托代理模型

认为尽管职业经理人的能力可能更强,但只有当企业规模大于临界规模时,企业才会选择聘用职业经理人.运用实物期权的方法,分析得到了企业聘用职业经理人的最优规模(时机),并基于此建立了最优分成制委托代理模型.分析结果表明,在企业考虑实物期权价值的情况下,增大了聘用职业经理人的临界规模,降低了最优分成比例,提高了代理人的努力水平.结果进一步显示,随着市场不确定性的增大,企业聘用职业经理人的临界规模增大,代理人的努力水平降低,最有分成比例增大.     

Optimal trading and shipping of agricultural commodities

We develop and implement a model for a profit maximizing firm that provides an intermediation service between commodity producers and commodity end-users. We are motivated by the grain intermediation business at Los Grobo—one of the largest commodity-trading firms in South America. Producers and end-users are distributed over a realistic spatial network, and trade with the firm through contracts for delivery of grain during the marketing season. The firm owns spatially distributed storage facilities, and begins the marketing season with a portfolio of prearranged purchase and sale contracts with upstream and downstream counterparts. The firm aims to maximize profits while satisfying all previous commitments, possibly through the execution of new transactions. Under realistic constraints for capacities, network structure and shipping costs, we identify the optimal trading, storing and shipping policy for the firm as the solution of a profit-maximizing optimization problem, encoded as a minimum cost flow problem in a time-expanded network that captures both geography and time. We perform extensive numerical examples and show significant efficiency gains derived from the joint planning of logistics and trading.     

搜索成本对B2B交易的影响研究——基于上游企业主导搜索的分析

搜索交易伙伴是企业开展B2B交易流程中的首要一环。当下,信息通讯技术的扩散简化了企业搜索交易伙伴的程序,搜索成本得到极大降低,交易效率得以极大提升。本文考虑B2B交易由上游企业主导搜索实现的情况下,搜索成本降低对B2B交易规模及产业竞争的影响。企业搜索成本降低对企业的交易行为将产生两种效应:进入效应和匹配效应。进入效应促使更多企业进入市场参与交易;匹配效应促使企业持续搜寻最优的交易伙伴。理论分析结果与一般直观认识相悖,具体而言,若交易由上游企业主导完成,两种效应叠加导致B2B交易并非总是随着搜索成本的降低而持续增长,而是呈现出增中有降的态势;同时,搜索成本的降低对主导搜索企业所在产业发展有利亦有弊,并不必然导致一个竞争更加剧烈的产业格局。     

证券客户生命周期模式分析及实证研究

随着证券经纪业务市场的变化,国内券商的经营模式逐渐发生变化,客户逐渐成为券商各项工作的重点和中心。本文通过对证券客户真实交易数据和财务数据的实证分析,研究了证券客户生命周期模式,提出了证券行业客户生命周期模式的特点和阶段,并指出应根据客户所处的具体阶段来制定有针对性的营销目标,从而帮助券商有效提高客户关系水平,最大化客户利润。     

两阶段免费增值商业模式中的定价优化与时序研究

免费增值商业模式在信息产品和服务当中被广泛采用。针对企业首先推出免费产品再推出付费产品以充分利用两种产品推出的时间差来提升消费者学习效应、降低消费者使用成本的情形,本文首先建立两阶段模型,求解给定系统参数情况下的付费版产品最优定价问题并给出解析解,然后通过与企业应用单阶段免费增值模式时的利润进行比较,解析地得到企业选择两阶段模式可获得较高利润的条件,最后在数值计算基础上讨论了学习效应强度对企业利润的影响,和优化学习效应强度以拓展两阶段模式适用范围的问题。本文的研究成果为拟采用免费增值商业模式的企业提供了关于产品最优定价和模式选择的决策支持。     

An optimization approach to adaptive multi-dimensional capital management

Firms should keep capital to offer sufficient protection against the risks they are facing. In the insurance context methods have been developed to determine the minimum capital level required, but less so in the context of firms with multiple business lines including allocation. The individual capital reserve of each line can be represented by means of classical models, such as the conventional Cramér–Lundberg model, but the challenge lies in soundly modelling the correlations between the business lines. We propose a simple yet versatile approach that allows for dependence by introducing a common environmental factor. We present a novel Bayesian approach to calibrate the latent environmental state distribution based on observations concerning the claim processes. The calibration approach is adjusted for an environmental factor that changes over time. The convergence of the calibration procedure towards the true environmental state is deduced. We then point out how to determine the optimal initial capital of the different business lines under specific constraints on the ruin probability of subsets of business lines. Upon combining the above findings, we have developed an easy-to-implement approach to capital risk management in a multi-dimensional insurance risk model.     

A multistage exchange trading model with asymmetric information and elements of bargaining

A modification of the discrete multistage exchange trading model with risky securities is considered. At each stage of trading, the players place their integer bids. One of the players knows the real price, while the other knows only its probability distribution. The transaction price is defined as a convex combination of the proposed bids with some given coefficient. The solution to an infinitely long game is obtained.     

Applying the maximum NPV rule with discounted/growth factors to a flexible production scale model

This study examines the maximum net present value of the market entry and exit thresholds derived by the traditional net present value method and combines the real options approach for the project investment or disinvestment. The discounted and growth factors are incorporated into the proposed entry and exit models, facilitating the complicated calculations required to identify the discounted and growth rates so as to assess and determine the expected present value of uncertain cash flow streams. Consequently, this investigation successfully combines applying the maximum net present value method and the real options approach to decision-making with the simple consideration of the discounted and growth factors in the flexible production scale model.     

A multi-period bank portfolio management program

We describe a bank portfolio management program based on the complete Markowitz model, which explicitly treats risk due to unanticipated fluctuations in interest rate. Our program takes into account both inter-temporal and intra-temporal covariance. The major result of this approach is that, for the same expected return, our model yields a portfolio with significantly smaller risk than that determined by an index model. For the same risk level, our method yields a portfolio with higher expected yield. The model employs a rolling planning horizon, with time periods in the planning horizon of arbitrary length. A novelty in the model is that it permits inter-temporal transactions in the portfolio's securities by generating dummy securities to represent every possible transaction over the planning horizon. The output from the model consists of a list of portfolio strategies showing the expected after-tax return and the 1% worst case yield for each strategy. We also present an illustrative example, using real data from a large Pennsylvania bank, and compare the results from our model to the simpler variance-only and index models. The principles upon which the model is based are sufficiently general to allow the program to be expanded into a general asset-liability balance sheet management program.     

增长期权对最优资本结构的影响研究：企业生命周期的视角

资产构成和生命周期的动态关系决定了企业最优资本结构的变化趋势。本文在利息税盾和破产成本的权衡理论框架下,运用实物期权方法,理论上揭示了增长期权动态执行导致最优资本结构随企业生命周期的变化规律,扩展分析了股东-债权人代理冲突对最优资本结构的影响,并提供了基于中国沪深A股上市公司的经验证据。结果表明：随着企业由年轻走向成熟,增长期权不断执行和在位资产逐渐累积会降低企业总体的破产风险,从而企业最优财务杠杆呈现上升趋势且增长速度逐渐放缓;股东和债权人在增长期权执行决策上的代理冲突导致的投资不足会降低最优财务杠杆,但代理成本随企业生命周期推进呈递减趋势。     

Risk-Sensitive Dynamic Asset Management

This paper develops a continuous time portfolio optimization model where the mean returns of individual securities or asset categories are explicitly affected by underlying economic factors such as dividend yields, a firm's return on equity, interest rates, and unemployment rates. In particular, the factors are Gaussian processes, and the drift coefficients for the securities are affine functions of these factors. We employ methods of risk-sensitive control theory, thereby using an infinite horizon objective that is natural and features the long run expected growth rate, the asymptotic variance, and a single risk-aversion parameter. Even with constraints on the admissible trading strategies, it is shown that the optimal trading strategy has a simple characterization in terms of the factor levels. For particular factor levels, the optimal trading positions can be obtained as the solution of a quadratic program. The optimal objective value, as a function of the risk-aversion parameter, is shown to be the solution of a partial differential equation. A simple asset allocation example, featuring a Vasicek-type interest rate which affects a stock index and also serves as a second investment opportunity, provides some additional insight about the risk-sensitive criterion in the context of dynamic asset management. Accepted 10 December 1997     

Bankruptcy prevention in multiperiod Markowitz optimization problem

A multiperiod version of the Markowitz optimization problem is considered by assuming that the financial market model is discrete with respect to time and the number of scenarios. Basing on the optimal strategy of securities trading, we find the upper bound of the expected final portfolio value which does not lead to bankruptcy.     

Analysis of the asset replacement level with an uncertain salvage value: a two-factor model

The aim of this article is to analyse the asset replacement problem from the perspective of optimal replacement level, given a specific tax environment and depreciation policy. Using a real options approach, our model minimizes current operation and maintenance costs and allows the definition of a new value of the replacement flexibility within a multi-cycle environment. The innovation on the valuation process comes from adding an autonomous salvage value’s factor. The results from partial differential equations reveal relevant differences from those observed in one-factor models, especially with regard to optimal replacement levels and in the non-monotonous effects of salvage value variation. The numerical case study also confirms that the salvage value is indeed a worthwhile element in the replacement process. It was possible to determine that, in terms of the magnitude of the cost replacement level, the key roles are played by changes in the speed of mean reversion, as well in the salvage factor volatility. This paper provides some improvements to the existing literature in equivalent annual cost by drawing up a cost minimization problem conditioned by a different salvage value dynamics, and contributes to real options literature by introducing a salvage value factor in the pricing model.     

Operational asset replacement strategy: A real options approach

This paper analyses the problem of replacement by investigating the optimal moment of investment replacement in a given tax environment with a given depreciation policy. An operation and maintenance cost minimization model, based on the definition of equivalent annual cost, is applied to a real options paradigm. The developed methodology allows for an innovative evaluation of the flexibility of replacement process analysis. A new two-factor evaluation function is introduced to quantify decisions on asset replacement under a unique cycle environment. This study improves upon previous findings in the literature as it accounts for autonomous salvage value processes. Based on partial differential equations, this model achieves a general analytical solution and particular numerical solution. The results differ significantly from those observed in one-factor models by showing evidence of over-evaluation in optimal levels of replacement, and by confirming suspicions that different types of uncertainties produce non-monotonous effects on the optimal replacement level. The scientific contribution of this study lies in new and stronger approaches to equivalent annual cost literature, supplying an algorithm for operation and maintenance cost minimization that is conditioned by autonomous salvage value. This study also contributes to the real options literature by developing a two-factor model with Brownian processes applied to asset replacement.     

A chaotic gas-like model for trading markets

This paper considers the ideal gas-like model for trading markets, where each individual interacts with others trading in money-conservative collisions. Traditionally this model introduces different rules of random selection and exchange between pairs of agents, what leads to different money distributions in the community. Real economic transactions are complex but obviously non-random. Therefore, unlike the traditional model, this work introduces chaotic elements in the evolution of the economic system. As a result, it is found that the chaotic gas-like model can reproduce the referenced wealth distributions observed in real economies, i.e. the Gamma, Exponential and Pareto distributions.     

Obtaining distributional information from valuation lattices

Efficient algorithms for obtaining information about the total return distribution of securities from valuation lattices are described. This information, including variances and covariances between securities, is useful when constructing hedging transactions that achieve specific objectives.     

Chance and necessity in sociological theory

This paper proposes a mathematical model of financial markets as networks. The model examines the effect of network structure on market behavior (price volatility and trading volume). In the model, investors are arrayed in various network configurations through which they gather information to make trading decisions. The basic network considered is a chain graph with two parameters, number of investors (n) and the length of time in which information is transmitted (k). Closed‐form expressions for price volatility and expected trading volume are provided. The model is generalized to more complex networks, focusing on the hub‐and‐spoke network. The network configurations analyzed do not represent the real (and unknown) communication network among investors, but predictions from the model are consistent with price and volume patterns observed in sociological and economic research on financial markets. The main result is that network structure alone influences price volatility and expected trading volume even though investors are homogeneous and the information introduced into the system is unbiased and random. This result suggests that the structure of the real communication network among investors may influence market behavior.