In this paper we provide a new identification strategy to test for the presence of putty-clay capital, i.e. capital that once installed cannot be re-invested. Using a panel of Indian manufacturing firms between 1995 and 2006, we quantify the response of firm sales within and across industries to...

I consider how heterogeneity in capital goods affects international trade patterns, and I show a novel source of comparative advantage: the magnitude of capital goods heterogeneity. Capital goods are heterogeneous in their vintage and productivity, and due to capacity constraints, only...

This paper studies the aggregate implications of microeconomic investment irreversibility and idiosyncratic uncertainty in a simple growth model by highlighting real option effects. We endogenize the drift rate of real option by connecting it to the state of the economy. Thereby, we extend the...

In this paper, we propose to explain capital accumulation in a stochastic framework by taking into account the two main motives for investment. Specifically, firms invest to expand capacity and to replace old machines. The model considers irreversible investment under uncertainty and embodied...

We document two new facts about the market-level response to minimum wage hikes: firm exit and entry both rise. These results pose a puzzle: canonical models of firm dynamics predict that exit rises but that entry falls. We develop a model of firm dynamics based on putty-clay technology and show...

This paper investigates the impact of uncertainty on an irreversible investment decisions in the laboratory. Subjects own the option to seize a claim on the future sum of realizations from an (ambiguous) random walk. I contrast model predicitions of the Subjective Expected Utility model (SEU,...

In this paper we derive a new handy integral equation for the free boundary of infinite time horizon, continuous time, stochastic, irreversible investment problems with uncertainty modeled as a one-dimensional, regular diffusion X0;x. The new integral equation allows to explicitly find the free...

Ex-ante regulations and ex-post liabilities for using a new technology will induce additional costs for adopters. The standard model is advanced by including irreversibility and uncertainty and taking into account transaction costs of negotiating possible cost reductions. The case analysed is...

This paper uses Hungarian data to estimate the structural parameters of a firm-level investment model with a rich structure of adjustment costs, and analyzes whether non-convex adjustment costs have any effect on the aggregate investment dynamics. The main question addressed is whether aggregate...

We offer a new perspective on games of irreversible investment under uncertainty in continuous time. The basis is a particular approach to solve the involved stochastic optimal control problems which allows to establish existence and uniqueness of an oligopolistic open loop equilibrium in a very...

As the time of leaving school determines the level of academic achievement this timing decision is central for the human capital investment decision. Real option theory offers a new perspective of the human capital investment decision under uncertainty and irreversibility. Unlike other...

Ex-ante regulations and ex-post liabilities for using a new technology will induce additional costs for adopters. The standard model is advanced by including irreversibility and uncertainty and taking into account transaction costs of negotiating possible cost reductions. The case analysed is...

A dynamic analysis of structural change is reviewed based on a vintage model of substitutability between inputs including capital before investment, but no substitution possibilities after investment, and ex post production possibilities characterised by fixed input coefficients. Key elements in...

This paper deals with the problem of tackling the adverse effect of output growth on environmental quality. For this purpose we use an intermediate sector that builds putty-practically-clay capital consisting of an amalgam of energy and raw capital used for final goods production. The...

A dynamic analysis of structural change is reviewed based on a vintage model of substitutability between inputs including capital before investment, but no substitution possibilities after investment, and ex post production possibilities characterised by fixed input coefficients. Key elements in...