James L. Paddock epub Corporate Investment Under Uncertainty, and the Neoclassical Model (Classic Reprint)

Production decisions in neoclassical, certainty models of capital investment by firms have been the driving force behind current theoretical specifications of investment behavior. Often a specific form of the production technology is assumed. Recently the concept of costs of adjustment has been included in these models. When properly specified, this cost function yields a unique, optimum firm size (i.e., a determinate level of output and investment) and theoretically justifies the use of distributed lags in econometric analysis. This paper develops a more general model of production and investment decisions made in a world of uncertainty wherein firm values are determined in an explicit capital market. With less restrictive assumptions as to technology, and both with and without costs of adjustment, we derive theoretical results which are empirically identical to the earlier research described above. Thus we also bring into question which model the previous empirical analyses actually validated. Further, we show rigorously that the investment and output levels of a firm in our uncertain world, with non-competitive aspects of the capital market, will be strictly less than those in a certainty context. With a competitive capital market under uncertainty, however, investment and output levels are shown to equal those of a certain world. Jorgenson [19] presents an exhaustive treatment of the neoclassical model. Therefore, the results of our analysis are compared to his.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately prese