Investment Under Alternative Return Assumptions: Comparing Random Walks and Mean Reversion / Gilbert E. Metcalf, Kevin A. Hassett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Metcalf, Gilbert E.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Hassett, Kevin A.

Series:

Technical Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. t0175.

NBER technical working paper series no. t0175

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Investment Under Alternative Return Assumptions

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.

Summary:

Many recent theoretical papers have come under attack for modeling prices as Geometric Brownian Motion. This process can diverge over time, implying that firms facing this price process can earn infinite profits. We explore the significance of this attack and contrast investment under Geometric Brownian Motion with investment assuming mean reversion. While analytically more complex, mean reversion in many cases is a more plausible assumption, allowing for supply responses to increasing prices. We show that cumulative investment is generally unaffected by the use of a mean reversion process rather than Geometric Brownian Motion and provide an explanation for this result.

Notes:

Print version record

March 1995.