A model of entry–exit decisions and capacity choice under demand uncertainty

Many investment decisions of agribusiness firms, such as when to invest in an emerging market or whether to expand the capacity of the firm, involve irreversible investment and uncertainty about demand, cost or competition. This paper uses an option‐value model to examine the factors affecting an agribusiness firm's decision whether and how much to invest in an emerging market under demand uncertainty. Demand uncertainty and irreversibility of investment make investment less desirable than the net present value (NPV) rule indicates. The inactive firm is more reluctant to enter the market when it takes into account demand uncertainty because it preserves the opportunity of making a better investment later. The active firm is more reluctant to abandon the investment because there is an option value of keeping the operation alive. There is a greater distance between the entry and exit thresholds under the option‐value approach than under the NPV rule due to demand uncertainty. The results have implications for agribusiness decision‐making.     

基于实物期权的城市供水PPP项目投资决策分析

为解决城市供水PPP项目中实物期权的价值合理界定问题,通过分析城市供水PPP项目的期权特性,采用二叉树实物期权定价模型对项目中隐含的期权进行定价,并运用模糊综合评价法对项目的复合期权价值加以完善,建立城市供水项目的价值评估模型,完善了传统的城市供水项目价值评估方法,并通过案例分析,验证了将实物期权法引入到价值评估中有助于合理界定城市供水PPP项目的不确定性价值,准确反映项目的实际价值,从而为投资者提供有效的决策依据。     

Strategic Agricultural Export Marketing in South Pacific Island Nations

Agribusiness firms in small developing countries face a special set of circumstances when formulating strategic marketing decisions. The nature of small economies usually means that agribusiness firms must have a strong export orientation, but they have little influence in the markets to which they export. The potential for domestic market expansion is limited. Information needed for developing export marketing strategies is often lacking, or difficult and expensive to obtain. An associated feature is the high degree of risk in export marketing, caused particularly by the variability in the world markets in which these nations sell their agricultural commodities. The importance of agricultural exports to economic development in these nations means that governments intervene a good deal in the export processes. Hence, government strategic decisions also affect agribusiness export performance. Finally, the number of competing firms is often small because of the smallness of the agricultural economy and the desire by agribusiness firms to avoid severe diseconomies of small size. This set of circumstances is examined in this paper in relation to a number of small South Pacific island nations (SPINS). Emphasis in the analysis of the strategic marketing concerns of agribusiness firms in these nations is on the competitive marketing strategies adopted in both the domestic and international sectors of the agricultural export markets. The special strategic marketing problems these firms face and the ways in which they have sought to overcome them are the main focus of study. But some attention is also given to the strategic decision-making processes of governments in the region, because they also have an impact on export strategies and performance of agribusiness marketing firms.     

无居民海岛实物期权估价模式研究

我国无居民海岛的市场进程刚刚起步,海岛价值评估方法没有统一、规范的制度或标准性规定。本文根据无居民海岛使用权价值的期权特征,应用实物期权理论,估算海岛的期权价值,以突破原有传统估价方法在海岛市场化交易初期阶段无法适用的瓶颈。研究结果显示,分别运用布莱克—舒尔斯模型和二项树模型估算的海岛价值基本一致,相比而言,二项树模型能够反映各个时间节点的参数变化,更加直观和灵活。研究结论说明实物期权估价方法适用于无居民海岛使用权估价,估价结果能够全面反映现金流时间价值、未来不确定性以及柔性决策权共同创造的海岛整体价值,为无居民海岛价值评估提供了新思路。     

实物期权在水利项目投资决策中的模型构建

简单介绍实物期权的概念、特性、分类以及定价模型，在此基础上结合水利工程的特点，分析水利建设项目投资决策的实物期权特征，构造水利建设项目投资决策中的两种实物期权：延迟投资期权和增长实物期权。依据两种实物期权特定的定价模型参数确定方法，确定可用于水利建设项目投资决策过程的定价模型。     

A Real Options Approach for the Investment Decisions of a Farm‐Based Anaerobic Digester

The profitability of anaerobic digesters (ADs) for Ontario dairy farmers are examined using real options under current and proposed government pricing policies and investment uncertainty. In the case of a renewable energy initiative such as an AD with large sunk costs and volatile returns, the value of deferring investment may be significant enough to offset the returns suggested by the net present value (NPV) approach. For a 150 cow herd, net revenues should be approximately $1.1 million before the AD is installed using the real options approach as compared to $0.5 million with the NPV approach. An AD is close to generating a positive NPV for a 600 cow herd if for either a 1% increase in the electrical price or decrease in the cost. However, farmers need not invest today and there is a value to delaying this decision from potential improvements in the technology that increase the efficiency and/or decrease operating costs of the AD. The real options analysis indicates that this option to delay investment has a value of approximately $300,000 for a typical Ontario dairy farm. Thus, either significant grant funding or higher feed‐in‐tariff rates are required to induce the increased adoption of AD technology in Ontario today even for the largest of dairy farms. Considering the probability of government support potentially ending, increases the value of investing today but a significant option value to defer still exists.     

Faustmann vs. real options theory – An experimental investigation of foresters’ harvesting decisions

Among the most complex decisions in forestry is the decision of when to harvest a stand. Many investment theories have been established and adjusted to maximize profit, yet limited knowledge is available regarding the predictive power of theories. Understanding foresters’ harvesting behavior, however, is important for forest management and policy support. Thus, the question arises as to what extent risky harvesting decisions comply with economic theories. Therefore, we conduct an incentive-based economic experiment with 107 forestry decision makers in order to analyze this research question. This approach is well-established in the field of behavioral economics since it has the advantage of analyzing certain economic parameters isolated from further aspects of the decision situation. We use the Faustmann–Pressler–Ohlin theorem and a real options approach as normative benchmarks. The present study provides evidence that none of the examined theories fully comply with the observed behavior. However, the harvesting behavior coincides significantly more with the real options theory than with the Faustmann–Pressler–Ohlin theorem. It can thus be stated that a higher degree of education leads to decisions that are more in accordance with the real options theory.     

Developing Hedging Strategies for Québec Hog Producers under Revenue Insurance

The paper investigates the optimal hedging strategies of Québec hog producers when they participate in a publicly funded revenue insurance program known as ASRA (Régime d'assurance-stabilisation des revenus agricoles). A forecast model of local cash and futures prices is built and Monte Carlo methods are used to derive the optimal futures and option positions of Québec hog producers. The positive correlation between forecasts of futures and cash spot prices induces positive sales of futures and put options to hedge price risk. ASRA provides put options to hog producers at actuarially advantageous terms. Producers can increase the expected utility of profits by selling back a portion of these put options using financial markets. Options are attractive to manage price risk given the nonlinearity in the profit function induced by the revenue insurance scheme. Speculative incentives to use futures and options are also discussed in the context of ASRA.     

China's financialized soybeans: The fault lines of neomercantilism narratives in international food regime analyses

Neomercantilism is commonly portrayed as a central mechanism of China's global agribusiness engagement. It implies reordering the international food regime by moving away from financial and trade liberalization and securing stable import supplies and price controls under state support. However, this article raises an alternative interpretation through an empirical-rich investigation of the prominence of the state-owned China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) in the soybean commodity chain. The article draws upon analyses of the Chinese state and international food regime to demonstrate that recent changes in state-capital relations during the Xi Jinping administration propelled forms of capital accumulation based on financial speculation and shareholder values. I conclude that state-driven internationalization has placed Chinese agribusiness in an advantageous position within global finance rather than challenging it through agrarian neomercantilist strategies.     

Valuing options for reserve water in the Fitzroy Basin*

Option values may be an important component of non‐use values when development options for environmental assets are considered. These are values that the community might hold for maintaining options to make future choices about allocating resources. However, option values are very difficult to define, at both theoretical and practical levels, and there has been a retreat over the past decade to the more inclusive concept of option prices. In the present paper, estimates of option values are reported for retaining unallocated water in reserve rather than using it for current development. The use of option values rather than option prices is justified on the basis that the focus is on non‐use values, and demand and supply uncertainties have been minimised. These values have been assessed through a series of nine choice modelling surveys that have been conducted over a 3‐year period in the Fitzroy River Basin in central Queensland. The results are then extrapolated to the case study areas within the basin to assess whether unallocated water should be held in reserve or used for development.     

Merchants of knowledge: Petty retail and differentiation without consolidation among farmers in Maharashtra,India

This article focuses on the intermediary figure of the village‐level petty retailer of chemical inputs, providing an account of the everyday relationships of farmers with transnational and domestic agribusiness capital. Retailers are figures from whom farmers purchase seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals. The article traces the rise of village‐level retailers in western Maharashtra, India, since the 1990s, and finds that Maratha (a dominant landholding cultivator caste) households have ventured into retailing. Further, farmers depend on retailers for credit, technical knowledge, and for the sale of their harvest. By analysing the pressures and risks of petty retail, visible in interactions with farmers, the article argues that even as retailing provides avenues for upward mobility to petty agricultural commodity producers, the trade is too volatile for the gains to sustain. Thus, the entry of Marathas into petty retail is akin to an attempt at class differentiation but without consolidation.     

Optimal farm size in an uncertain land market: the case of Kyrgyz Republic

This article applies a real options model to the problem of land development. Making use of the 1998–2001 Kyrgyz Household Budget Survey, we show that when the hypothesis of decreasing return to scale holds, the relation between the threshold value of revenue per hectare and the amount of land cultivated is positive. In addition, the relation between the threshold and the amount of land owned is positive in the case of continuous supply of land and negative when there is discontinuous supply of land. The direct consequence is that, in the first case, smaller farms will be more willing to rent land and exercise the option where, in the second case, larger farms will exercise first. The results suggest three main conclusions: (i) the combination of uncertainty and irreversibility is an important factor in land development decisions, (ii) farmer behavior is consistent with the continuous profit maximization model, and (iii) farming unit revenue tends to be positively related to farm size, once uncertainty is properly accounted for.     

Passive farming and land development: A real options approach

The EU's farmers are no longer required to produce commodities to receive direct payments as long as they keep their land in good condition. Some believe this is bad for development because it encourages passive farming. We evaluate, using a real options approach, the implications of decoupled payments for the desirability and optimal timing of agricultural land development when considering sunk investment costs and uncertain future returns. We find that decoupled payments accelerate development while passive farming increases, by adding managerial flexibility, the value associated with land. We then use the Nash bargaining solution to identify the rental share to be paid for leasing land. We show that a deal for the lease of land can always be reached, but that the facility to use passive farming as an outside option allows landowners to extract policy rents, thereby undermining the potential for the Basic Payment Scheme to support tenant farmers’ incomes.     

Behavioral Dimensions of New Product Acceptance

This article explores key behavioral dimensions associated with the acceptance of aericultural innovations and new products by agribusiness operators. Variables affecting adoption behavior are presented in a "Hybrid Model" that combines both knowledge/awareness attributes and economic factors constraining buyers from accepting new products. Additionally, this conceptual framework considers buyers' criteria for evaluation of new products as critical in mediating the decision-making process. Understanding the behavioral dimensions of new product acceptance has vital implications for future agribusiness research and marketing management.     

How to assess the impact of hope on a change in the use of land on market value?

This article is devoted to common yet quite specific approaches to valuation practice tasks that are involved in determining the market value of real properties in areas of possible land use changes. An intrinsic element of market value in such areas is the hope value, for which an option pricing model is used quite frequently.The authors propose a specially adapted Samuelson-McKean model for this task, which allows market value indication to be determined not only with the built-in development option, but also the dynamics of its components value in the current highest and best use and hope value – depending on the location of the given property. The greatest advantage of the Samuelson-McKean model is that it can be treated as universal for analyzing the range of possible indications of market value seeing as how its main task is to find a compromise between the interests of the buyer and the seller, which is the goal of any fair transactions and decisions.     

政府经营性土地储备供应决策——基于实物期权的理论模型

研究目的:探讨政府的经营性土地储备供应决策方法,以增加出让收入及抑制开发商囤地行为。研究方法:实物期权理论,案例研究法。研究结果:(1)将土地供应权视为基于房产的实物期权,推算出了最优供应时机和理论价值,研究发现市场不确定性将提高土地期权价值,并使最优供应时机延后;(2)案例比较分析发现,地块的实际出让时间越接近理论最优供应时机,出让收入越高,但实际上政府对地块并未做出准确的价值判断。研究结论:(1)依据实物期权模型做出的土地储备供应决策更能有效地把握市场形势波动的时机;(2)模型在中国的应用需要可监督的公共财政体系以及财政分成体制改革。     

基于实物期权的林业项目投资研究

通过分析林业项目的特点及其实物期权特性,考虑林业项目投资过程中未来利润流的不确定性及突发事件的不确定性,运用实物期权的方法,对林业项目投资进行分析,用动态规划的方法导出项目投资阈值,并进行数值分析。     

林业项目评估的实物期权法浅议

总结了林业项目评估的现状,指出传统评估方法的不足,进而分析林业项目的特点及其具有的期权特性,解释实物期权法在林业项目评估中的必要性和可行性。然后,介绍实物期权法在林业项目评估中的应用现状,分析在运用实物期权法进行林业项目评估时的局限和问题。最后,针对这些问题给出一些建议。     

Evolving Marketing Channels for Beef and Lamb in the United Kingdom-

This paper investigates the effects of: (1) recent changes to food safety legislation; (2) increasing consumer concerns over animal welfare; and (3) further market integration in the European Union on British agribusiness firms involved in marketing beef and lamb. It is hypothesized that these changes will alter the transaction costs associated with marketing these products. As a result, there is likely to be a reduction in the number of animals sold for slaughter through traditional auction markets and an increase in direct contracting or strategic alliances between supermarkets and farmers' marketing cooperatives.     

基于实物期权的水利工程投资柔性决策研究

针对水利工程投资的风险性、不确定性等特点,应用实物期权的理论与方法,研究不确定条件下的水利工程投资决策中的项目柔性问题。以大型输水工程为例,建立基于实物期权的输水工程投资的柔性决策模型,并通过数值结果综合分析各个不确定条件因素对项目柔性以及投资决策的影响,为水利工程投资方案的决策提供了一个新思路和方法。