Optimal Investment, Growth Options, and Security Returns

63 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2000 Last revised: 12 Aug 2022

See all articles by Jonathan Berk

Jonathan Berk

Stanford Graduate School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Richard C. Green

Carnegie Mellon University - David A. Tepper School of Business

Vasant Naik

Lehman Brothers International, Europe

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 1998

Abstract

As a consequence of optimal investment choices, firms' assets and growth options change in predictable ways. Using a dynamic model, we show that this imparts predictability to changes in a firm's systematic risk, and its expected return. Simulations show that the model simultaneously reproduces: (i) the time series relation between the book-to-market ratio and asset returns, (ii) the cross-sectional relation between book to market, market value and return, (iii) contrarian effects at short horizons, (iv) momentum effects at longer horizons, and (v) the inverse relation between interest rates and the market risk premium.

Suggested Citation

Berk, Jonathan B. and Green, Richard C. and Naik, Vasant, Optimal Investment, Growth Options, and Security Returns (June 1998). NBER Working Paper No. w6627, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=226345

Jonathan B. Berk (Contact Author)

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Richard C. Green

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Vasant Naik

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