Title:Optimal investment under technological change

Speaker:Fanglin Ye

Time:1:55pm April 27, 2018

Venue:Yide building H501

Abstract

This paper investigates a firm’s optimal investment timing and scale under technological change. We show that the firm will not follow a consistent investment pattern when new technologies and learning-by-doing, two different types of technological change, are both accounted for. The firm will invest earlier and on a smaller scale when the learning effect is strong but the next new technology takes a long time to arrive, otherwise it will invest later but on a larger scale. This is in contrast to the common finding in real-options literature that technological change delays investment. The implication of this result is discussed and compared with observed firm behavior in the clean energy market.

Speaker’s Information

Fanglin Ye is an assistant professor in International Academy of Business and Economics, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include Energy Economics and Finance, and especially on clean energy investment and real options.