Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Does Risk Aversion Accelerate Optimal Forest Rotation under Uncertainty?

Contents:

Author Info

  • Luis H. R. Alvarez
  • Erkki Koskela

Abstract

We use a Wicksellian single rotation framework to analyze the impact of the intertemporally fluctuating and stochastic mean-reverting interest rate process on the optimal harvesting threshold and thereby the expected length of the rotation period, when forest value is also stochastic following geometric Brownian motion and landowners are risk-averse. We provide an explicit solution for the two-dimensional path-dependent rotation problem and demonstrate that higher interest rate volatility increases, while higher risk aversion decreases the optimal harvesting threshold. Moreover, under risk aversion increased forest value volatility decreases the optimal harvesting threshold, while it has no effect under risk neutrality. Numerical illustrations indicate that higher interest rate volatility will raise the expected rotation period at an increasing rate, while higher forest value volatility will decrease its sensitivity under risk aversion.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/page/portal/DocBase_Content/WP/WP-CESifo_Working_Papers/wp-cesifo-2004/wp-cesifo-2004-09/cesifo1_wp1285.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 1285.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1285

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Poschingerstrasse 5, 81679 Munich
Phone: +49 (89) 9224-0
Fax: +49 (89) 985369
Email:
Web page: http://www.cesifo.de
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: forest rotation; risk aversion; stochastic interest rates; optimal stopping;

Other versions of this item:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Alvarez, Luis H R & Koskela, Erkki, 2003. "On Forest Rotation under Interest Rate Variability," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 489-503, August.
  2. R. C. Merton, 1970. "Optimum Consumption and Portfolio Rules in a Continuous-time Model," Working papers 58, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
  3. Margaret Insley & Kimberly Rollins, 2005. "On Solving the Multirotational Timber Harvesting Problem with Stochastic Prices: A Linear Complementarity Formulation," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(3), pages 735-755.
  4. Chang, Fwu-Ranq, 2005. "On the elasticities of harvesting rules," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 469-485, March.
  5. Samuelson, Paul A, 1976. "Economics of Forestry in an Evolving Society," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 14(4), pages 466-92, December.
  6. Reed, William J., 1984. "The effects of the risk of fire on the optimal rotation of a forest," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 180-190, June.
  7. Willassen, Yngve, 1998. "The stochastic rotation problem: A generalization of Faustmann's formula to stochastic forest growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 573-596, April.
  8. Luis H. R. Alvarez & Erkki Koskela, 2001. "Wicksellian Theory of Forest Rotation under Interest Rate Variability," CESifo Working Paper Series 606, CESifo Group Munich.
  9. Cox, John C & Ingersoll, Jonathan E, Jr & Ross, Stephen A, 1985. "A Theory of the Term Structure of Interest Rates," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(2), pages 385-407, March.
  10. Insley, Margaret, 2002. "A Real Options Approach to the Valuation of a Forestry Investment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 471-492, November.
  11. Reed, William J & Clarke, Harry R, 1990. "Harvest Decisions and Asset Valuation for Biological Resources Exhibiting Size-Dependent Stochastic Growth," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(1), pages 147-69, February.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Sylvain Caurla & Philippe Delacote & Franck Lecocq & Ahmed Barkaoui, 2009. "Fuelwood consumption, restrictions about resource availability and public policies: impacts on the French forest sector," Working Papers - Cahiers du LEF 2009-03, Laboratoire d'Economie Forestiere, AgroParisTech-INRA.
  2. Ángel León & Julio Carmona, 2007. "Investment Option Under Cir Interest Rates," Working Papers. Serie AD 2007-24, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
  3. Zhou, Mo & Buongiorno, Joseph, 2011. "Effects of stochastic interest rates in decision making under risk: A Markov decision process model for forest management," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 402-410, June.
  4. Nikolay Aleksandrov & Raphael Espinoza & Lajos Gyurko, 2012. "Optimal Oil Production and the World Supply of Oil," OxCarre Working Papers 092, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
  5. Couture, Stéphane & Reynaud, Arnaud, 2011. "Forest management under fire risk when forest carbon sequestration has value," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2002-2011, September.
  6. Olivier Damette & Philippe Delacote, 2009. "The environmental resource curse hypothesis: the forest case," Working Papers - Cahiers du LEF 2009-04, Laboratoire d'Economie Forestiere, AgroParisTech-INRA.
  7. Eric Fesselmeyer & Marc Santugini, 2009. "Strategic Exploitation of a Common Resource under Environmental Risk," Cahiers de recherche 09-08, HEC Montréal, Institut d'économie appliquée, revised Feb 2012.
  8. Marielle Brunette & Stéphane Couture & Eric Langlais, 2009. "Amenities and Risk in Forest Managemen," Working Papers - Cahiers du LEF 2009-01, Laboratoire d'Economie Forestiere, AgroParisTech-INRA.
  9. Alvarez, Luis H.R. & Koskela, Erkki, 2007. "Taxation and rotation age under stochastic forest stand value," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 113-127, July.
  10. Margaret Insley & Tony Wirjanto, 2008. "Contrasting two approaches in real options valuation: contingent claims versus dynamic programming," Working Papers 08002, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics.
  11. Price, Colin, 2011. "When and to what extent do risk premia work? Cases of threat and optimal rotation," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 53-66, January.
  12. Alvarez, Luis H.R. & Koskela, Erkki, 2007. "Optimal harvesting under resource stock and price uncertainty," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 2461-2485, July.
  13. Chladna, Zuzana, 2007. "Determination of optimal rotation period under stochastic wood and carbon prices," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(8), pages 1031-1045, May.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1285

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Julio Saavedra).

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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