Abstract: The relation between taxation states and foreign direct
investment has been studied for several perspectives and with states
of different levels of development. Usually it's only considered the
impact of tax level on the foreign direct investment volume. This
paper enhances this view by assuming that multinationals companies
(MNC) can use transfer prices systems and have got investment
timing flexibility. Thus, it evaluates the impact of the use of
international transfer pricing systems on the states- policy and on the
investment timing of the multinational companies. In uncertain
business environments (with periodical release of news), the
investment can increase if MNC detain investment delay options.
This paper shows how tax differentials can attract foreign direct
investments (FDI) and influence MNC behavior. The equilibrium is
set in a global environment where MNC can shift their profits
between states depending on the corporate tax rates. Assuming the
use of transfer pricing schemes, this paper confirms the relationship
between MNC behavior and the release of new business news.
Abstract: This paper argues that increased uncertainty, in certain
situations, may actually encourage investment. Since earlier studies
mostly base their arguments on the assumption of geometric Brownian
motion, the study extends the assumption to alternative stochastic
processes, such as mixed diffusion-jump, mean-reverting process, and
jump amplitude process. A general approach of Monte Carlo
simulation is developed to derive optimal investment trigger for the
situation that the closed-form solution could not be readily obtained
under the assumption of alternative process. The main finding is that
the overall effect of uncertainty on investment is interpreted by the
probability of investing, and the relationship appears to be an invested
U-shaped curve between uncertainty and investment. The implication
is that uncertainty does not always discourage investment even under
several sources of uncertainty. Furthermore, high-risk projects are not
always dominated by low-risk projects because the high-risk projects
may have a positive realization effect on encouraging investment.
Abstract: Real options theory suggests that managerial flexibility embedded within irreversible investments can account for a significant value in project valuation. Although the argument has become the dominant focus of capital investment theory over decades, yet recent survey literature in capital budgeting indicates that corporate practitioners still do not explicitly apply real options in investment decisions. In this paper, we explore how real options decision criteria can be transformed into equivalent capital budgeting criteria under the consideration of uncertainty, assuming that underlying stochastic process follows a geometric Brownian motion (GBM), a mixed diffusion-jump (MX), or a mean-reverting process (MR). These equivalent valuation techniques can be readily decomposed into conventional investment rules and “option impacts", the latter of which describe the impacts on optimal investment rules with the option value considered. Based on numerical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation, three major findings are derived. First, it is shown that real options could be successfully integrated into the mindset of conventional capital budgeting. Second, the inclusion of option impacts tends to delay investment. It is indicated that the delay effect is the most significant under a GBM process and the least significant under a MR process. Third, it is optimal to adopt the new capital budgeting criteria in investment decision-making and adopting a suboptimal investment rule without considering real options could lead to a substantial loss in value.
Abstract: For decades financial economists have been attempted to determine the optimal investment policy by recognizing the option value embedded in irreversible investment whose project value evolves as a geometric Brownian motion (GBM). This paper aims to examine the effects of the optimal investment trigger and of the misspecification of stochastic processes on investment in real options applications. Specifically, the former explores the consequence of adopting optimal investment rules on the distributions of corporate value under the correct assumption of stochastic process while the latter analyzes the influence on the distributions of corporate value as a result of the misspecification of stochastic processes, i.e., mistaking an alternative process as a GBM. It is found that adopting the correct optimal investment policy may increase corporate value by shifting the value distribution rightward, and the misspecification effect may decrease corporate value by shifting the value distribution leftward. The adoption of the optimal investment trigger has a major impact on investment to such an extent that the downside risk of investment is truncated at the project value of zero, thereby moving the value distributions rightward. The analytical framework is also extended to situations where collection lags are in place, and the result indicates that collection lags reduce the effects of investment trigger and misspecification on investment in an opposite way.