IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pdn/ciepap/77.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Investment under Threat of Disaster

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Gries

    (University of Paderborn)

  • Natasa Bilkic

    (University of Paderborn)

Abstract

During the last 40 years the number and severity of economic, natural, and political disasters has significantly increased all over the world. Disasters are characterized by a highly uncertain frequency of occurrence and size of impact. Due to their relatively small probability, for a long time they were not regarded as an essential element of investment decisions. Although this has changed recently, especially in the context of specific applications in finance, a transfer to a general evaluation of disasters has not taken place yet. This paper shows how disastrous events of uncertain occurrence and uncertain size can be included in the most frequently used evaluation method, namely expected net present value (ENPV). We identify an Ito-Lévy Jump Diffusion process as an adequate stochastic process for this kind of phenomenon and determine how to account for such large uncertain events. We also illustrate that disregarding this phenomenon may easily lead to unprofitable investment behavior. Hence, disasters do have a huge impact on investment behavior and should be included into project evaluation.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Gries & Natasa Bilkic, 2014. "Investment under Threat of Disaster," Working Papers CIE 77, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pdn:ciepap:77
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://groups.uni-paderborn.de/wp-wiwi/RePEc/pdf/ciepap/WP77.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bilkic, N. & Gries, T. & Pilichowski, M., 2012. "Stay in school or start working? — The human capital investment decision under uncertainty and irreversibility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 706-717.
    2. Kunreuther, Howard, 1996. "Mitigating Disaster Losses through Insurance," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 12(2-3), pages 171-187, May.
    3. Daniel Sutter & Marc Poitras, 2010. "Do people respond to low probability risks? Evidence from tornado risk and manufactured homes," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 181-196, April.
    4. Jaimungal, Sebastian & Wang, Tao, 2006. "Catastrophe options with stochastic interest rates and compound Poisson losses," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 469-483, June.
    5. Howard Kunreuther & Mark Pauly, 2004. "Neglecting Disaster: Why Don't People Insure Against Large Losses?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 5-21, January.
    6. W. Viscusi, 2009. "Valuing risks of death from terrorism and natural disasters," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 191-213, June.
    7. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    8. Merton, Robert C., 1976. "Option pricing when underlying stock returns are discontinuous," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 125-144.
    9. Graham, Daniel A, 1981. "Cost-Benefit Analysis under Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 715-725, September.
    10. Francois Gourio, 2012. "Disaster Risk and Business Cycles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2734-2766, October.
    11. Kunreuther, Howard & Kleffner, Anne E, 1992. "Should Earthquake Mitigation Measures Be Voluntary or Required?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 321-333, December.
    12. Kunreuther, Howard & Novemsky, Nathan & Kahneman, Daniel, 2001. "Making Low Probabilities Useful," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 103-120, September.
    13. Cox, John C. & Ross, Stephen A., 1976. "The valuation of options for alternative stochastic processes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 145-166.
    14. V. Smith & Jared Carbone & Jaren Pope & Daniel Hallstrom & Michael Darden, 2006. "Adjusting to natural disasters," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 37-54, September.
    15. Robert Jarrow & Feng Zhao, 2006. "Downside Loss Aversion and Portfolio Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 558-566, April.
    16. Samuel Cox & Hal Pedersen, 2000. "Catastrophe Risk Bonds," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(4), pages 56-82.
    17. Yang, Hailiang & Zhang, Lihong, 2005. "Optimal investment for insurer with jump-diffusion risk process," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 615-634, December.
    18. Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1973. "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 637-654, May-June.
    19. Cox, John C. & Ross, Stephen A. & Rubinstein, Mark, 1979. "Option pricing: A simplified approach," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 229-263, September.
    20. Lester Lave & Jay Apt, 2006. "Planning for natural disasters in a stochastic world," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 117-130, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Sutter & Marc Poitras, 2010. "Do people respond to low probability risks? Evidence from tornado risk and manufactured homes," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 181-196, April.
    2. Philipp N. Baecker, 2007. "Real Options and Intellectual Property," Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, Springer, number 978-3-540-48264-2, October.
    3. Gries, Thomas & Naudé, Wim, 2022. "Breakthroughs, Backlashes and Artificial General Intelligence: An Extended Real Options Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 15077, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Pringles, Rolando & Olsina, Fernando & Penizzotto, Franco, 2020. "Valuation of defer and relocation options in photovoltaic generation investments by a stochastic simulation-based method," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 846-864.
    5. Lo Nigro, Giovanna & Morreale, Azzurra & Enea, Gianluca, 2014. "Open innovation: A real option to restore value to the biopharmaceutical R&D," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 183-193.
    6. Ardian, Aldin & Kumral, Mustafa, 2020. "Incorporating stochastic correlations into mining project evaluation using the Jacobi process," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Yuji Yamada & James Primbs, 2004. "Properties of Multinomial Lattices with Cumulants for Option Pricing and Hedging," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 11(3), pages 335-365, September.
    8. Kung, James J. & Lee, Lung-Sheng, 2009. "Option pricing under the Merton model of the short rate," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 378-386.
    9. Davide Lauria & W. Brent Lindquist & Svetlozar T. Rachev & Yuan Hu, 2023. "Unifying Market Microstructure and Dynamic Asset Pricing," Papers 2304.02356, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    10. Li, Minqiang, 2010. "Asset Pricing - A Brief Review," MPRA Paper 22379, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Mondher Bellalah, 2009. "Derivatives, Risk Management & Value," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 7175, June.
    12. Carl Chiarella & Xue-Zhong He & Christina Sklibosios Nikitopoulos, 2015. "Derivative Security Pricing," Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-662-45906-5, July-Dece.
    13. Ramesh K.S. Rao, 1981. "Modern Option Pricing Models: A Dichotomous Classification," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 4(1), pages 33-44, March.
    14. Yan, Shu, 2011. "Jump risk, stock returns, and slope of implied volatility smile," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 216-233, January.
    15. Raffaele Oriani & Luigi Sereno, 2011. "Advanced Valuation Methods: The Real Options Approach," Chapters, in: Federico Munari & Raffaele Oriani (ed.), The Economic Valuation of Patents, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Braun, Alexander, 2011. "Pricing catastrophe swaps: A contingent claims approach," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 520-536.
    17. Stanton, Richard, 2000. "From cradle to grave: How to loot a 401(k) plan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 485-516, June.
    18. Mark Browne & Christian Knoller & Andreas Richter, 2015. "Behavioral bias and the demand for bicycle and flood insurance," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 141-160, April.
    19. Cristina Mihaela Onica & Nicoleta Ghilic & Maria-Gabriela Chirita, 2015. "News And Perspectives On Accounting And Econometric Modeling Cash Flow Indicators In The Companies Listed On The Capital Market," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 435-443.
    20. Suresh M. Sundaresan, 2000. "Continuous‐Time Methods in Finance: A Review and an Assessment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1569-1622, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    disaster evaluation; large risk and uncertainty; non-marginal stochastic shocks; investment project evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pdn:ciepap:77. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: WP-WiWi-Info or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cipadde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.