Privatization of businesses and flexible investment: a real option approach
2011 (English) In: Decisions in Economics and Finance, ISSN 1593-8883, E-ISSN 1129-6569, Vol. 35, no 1, p. 75-89Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
In this article, we study the situation, where the opportunity is given to invest into a government-owned business by partial privatization to a private company. After payment of an initial installment cost, the private company’s investments are flexible within a range [0, k] until the business is completed. We model the problem in a real option framework, using geometric mean reversion to describe the dynamics of the business. We determine the optimal time for the private company to enter and pay the initial installment cost as well as the optimal dynamic investment strategy that it follows afterward. For the latter, analytic solution cannot be obtained. We use quadratic splines in order to solve the corresponding dynamic programming problem. Finally, we determine the optimal degree of privatization in our model from the government’s perspective.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages Springer, 2011. Vol. 35, no 1, p. 75-89
Keywords [en]
Investment decisions, Privatization, Real options, Industrial organization, Stochastic optimal control, Dynamic programming
National Category
Economics
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-238893 DOI: 10.1007/s10203-011-0115-1 ISI: 000455417400004 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84858795591 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-238893 DiVA, id: diva2:1958809
2025-05-162025-05-162025-05-21 Bibliographically approved