Quasi-option value: Some misconceptions dispelled

Quasi−option value under ambiguity

Real investments involving irreversibility and ambiguity embed a positive quasi−option value under ambiguity (q.o.v.a.), which modifies the evaluation of an investment decision involving depletion of natural resources by increasing the value of delaying. Q.o.v.a. depends on the specific decision−maker attitude towards ambiguity, expressed by a capacity on the state space. An empirical measure o...

Mining and quasi-option value∗

We study the timing-of-extraction problem facing a decentralized mine owner when extraction entails environmental damage. As expected, when the environmental damage from mining is known, the socially optimal timing will depend on the magnitude of the damage relative to these costs in the rest of the world. But when environmental damage is uncertain, and these costs are revealed over time, a qua...

Quasi-option value and climate policy choices

In the climate change issue, the environmental irreversibility (risk of an acceleration of mitigation policies if the worse happen) has to be balanced with the investment irreversibility (risk of over-cautious policies). To explore this balance, we define an option value for a precautionary climate policy. Using the simplest decision-making model, we expose how option value relates to the expec...

Some Misconceptions about Genetics

providing a succinct summary of what is known about the opportunities for psychia try that are likely to derive from genetic findings as they emerge from future re search. The research techniques used in both quantitative genetics (Rutter et a!, 1990a) and molecular genetics (Owen & McGuffin, 1993; Lander & Schork, 1994; Risch & Merikangas, 1996) have been the subject of previous non-technical ...

Some Common Misconceptions of Malaria