Optimal Resource Extraction Contracts Under Threat of Expropriation / Eduardo Engel, Ronald Fischer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Engel, Eduardo.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Fischer, Ronald.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w13742.

NBER working paper series no. w13742

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2008.

Summary:

The government contracts with a foreign firm to extract a natural resource that requires an upfront investment and which faces price uncertainty. In states where profits are high, there is a likelihood of expropriation, which generates a social cost that increases with the expropriated value. In this environment, the planner's optimal contract avoids states with high probability of expropriation. The contract can be implemented via a competitive auction with reasonable informational requirements. The bidding variable is a cap on the present value of discounted revenues, and the firm with the lowest bid wins the contract. The basic framework is extended to incorporate government subsidies, unenforceable investment effort and political moral hazard, and the general thrust of the results described above is preserved.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2008.