THE RELATION BETWEEN THE MAGNITUDE OF GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES AND THE DURATION OF EQUITY

I examine the relation between the magnitude of growth opportunities in a firm and the duration of the firm's equity. Conventional wisdom holds that because cash flows from growth opportunities occur late relative to cash flows from existing projects, firms that can be characterized as growth firms have a higher duration. I adopt the real option approach to the valuation of growth opportunities and show that under certain circumstances the opposite can be true; equity duration can be lower for growth firms. I further show that the relation between equity duration and the magnitude of growth opportunities depends on (a) the magnitude of the duration of assets in place, (b) dominance of the firm in its industry, (c) the magnitude of R&D expenditure, and (d) the volatility of expected cash flows generated by the investment project underlying the growth opportunity. I empirically test these predictions and find the predictions are not rejected, particularly for the utility and banking industries. JEL classification: G31, G12.