Papers published in this report series are preliminary versions of journal articles and not for quotations. Abstract This paper extends the real options literature by discussing an investment problem, where a firm has to determine optimal investment timing and optimal capacity choice at the same time under conditions of irreversible investment expenditures and uncertainty in future demand. Afte...

A recent literature suggests that because investment expenditures are irreversible and can be delayed, they may be highly sensitive to uncertainty. We briefly summarize the theory, stressing its empirical implications. We then use cross-section and time-series data for a set of developing and industrialized countries to explore the relevance of the theory for aggregate investment. We find that ...

Recent research has indicated that investment in certain capital types, such as computers, has fostered accelerated productivity growth and enabled a fundamental reorganization of the workplace. However, remarkably little is known about the composition of investment at the micro level. This short paper takes an important …rst step in …lling this knowledge gap by looking at the newly available m...

Antiretroviral therapy (ART), a treatment for AIDS, is rapidly increasing life expectancy throughout Africa. A longer life expectancy increases the value of human capital investment, though the effect on savings is theoretically ambiguous. This paper uses spatial and temporal variation in ART availability to evaluate the impact of ART provision on savings and investment. We find that ART availa...

The paper in the study of poverty in Pakistan is aimed at the analysis of macroeconomic determinants of poverty. It reviews the empirical literature on poverty in Pakistan over the last thirty years. The literature varies from published research papers to the different reports produced by the national and the international institutions. It also estimates the impact of different causes of povert...

CONDENSED statements of Association finances for the year 1952, prepared by the auditing firm of G. P. Graham & Company, are published herewith, in order that the entire membership may be fully informed regarding the financial operations, obligations, and resources of the AAAS. The first two statements summarize operating receipts and expenditures. Once again the annuity payments to the Cattell...

As a result of the increasing pressure on health care expenditures calculations of the return on investment (ROI) have been attempted in assessing the utility of medical equipment purchases. The measurement of ROI requires an in-depth analysis of equipment cost, cost structure, and medical processes. ROI analysis in health care is more complicated and error-prone than in most other industries. ...

We examine the relationship between investments in information technology (IT) and two measures of retail firm performance: labor productivity and productivity growth over the 1992 to 1997 period. We use untapped firm and establishme nt micro data from the Censuses of Retail Trade and the Assets and Expenditures Survey. We show that large firms account for most retail IT investment, employment ...

Capital investment is a major concern for public hospitals. Relative to operating expenditures, it has been almost constant for 40 years, despite great changes in technology and patient throughputs. Research studies during the last decade suggest that over that time almost all investment has been on simply replacing existing assets. Per person, the total capital stock has actually declined. How...

This study investigates the relationship between information technology (IT) expenditures and national productivity based on a production estimation approach by using pooled time-series country-level data set for the period from 1992 to 2000. The results confirm the findings of earlier studies on country-level IT investment effect, showing IT to have significant and positive effects on national...