Capital structure and the firm under uncertainty

This paper examines the interplay between the real and financial decisions of the competitive firm `a la Sandmo. Besides output price uncertainty, the firm faces additional sources of risk which are aggregated into an additive background risk. We show that the firm always chooses its optimal debt-equity ratio to minimize the weighted average cost of capital, irrespective of the risk attitude of the firm and the incidence of the multiple sources of uncertainty. Even though the introduction of the background risk affects neither the optimal debt-equity ratio nor the marginal rate of technical substitution, it does have an adverse effect on the output level of the firm. Furthermore, if capital is a normal input, the presence of the background risk induces the firm to acquire less capital by issuing less debt and equity. --Background risk,Capital structure,Price uncertainty

Strategic Hedging

For a Cournot duopoly with a foreign firm exporting to the home firm's market hedging against unfavorable shifts in the stochastic spot exchange rate is analyzed. In a two-stage setting with product market and hedging decisions we show that hedging can be used as a strategic device. Under constant and decreasing absolute risk aversion an increase in hedging volume by the foreign firm promotes its exports and lowers the equilibrium output of the home firm. In contrast to the well-known full-hedging result in a perfectly competitive environment, we find that the foreign firm will over-hedge for strategic reasons. Furthermore, the separation result from the literature on hedging under perfect competition no longer holds in the duopoly framework, i.e., equilibrium output levels depend on the preference of the foreign firm and the probability distribution of the spot exchange rate.Exports, Market structure, Hedging

Capital structure and the firm under uncertainty

This paper examines the interplay between the real and financial decisions of the competitive firm `a la Sandmo. Besides output price uncertainty, the firm faces additional sources of risk which are aggregated into an additive background risk. We show that the firm always chooses its optimal debt-equity ratio to minimize the weighted average cost of capital, irrespective of the risk attitude of the firm and the incidence of the multiple sources of uncertainty. Even though the introduction of the background risk affects neither the optimal debt-equity ratio nor the marginal rate of technical substitution, it does have an adverse effect on the output level of the firm. Furthermore, if capital is a normal input, the presence of the background risk induces the firm to acquire less capital by issuing less debt and equity

Restricted Export Flexibility and Risk Management with Options and Futures

This paper examines the production, export and risk management decisions of a risk-averse competitive firm under exchange rate risk. The firm is export flexible in allocating its output to either the domestic market or a foreign market after observing the exchange rate. Export flexibility is restricted by certain minimum sales requirements that are due to long-term considerations. Currency options are sufficient to derive a separation result under restricted export flexibility. Under fairly priced currency futures and options, full hedging with both instruments is optimal. Introducing fairly-priced currency options stimulates production provided that the currency futures market is unbiased.restricted export flexibility, risk management, currency futures, currency options

The impact of delivery risk on optimal production and futures hedging

Multiple delivery specifications exist on nearly all commodity futures contracts. Sellers are typically allowed to choose among several grades of the underlying commodity. On the delivery day, the futures price converges to the spot price of the cheapest-to-deliver grade rather than to that of the par-delivery grade of the commodity. This imposes an additional delivery risk on hedgers. This paper derives the optimal production and futures hedging strategy for a risk-averse competitive firm in the presence of delivery risk. We show that, depending on its relative valuation, the delivery option may induce the firm to produce more than in the absence of delivery risk. If delivery risk is additively related to commodity price risk, the firm will under-hedge its exposure to commodity price risk. If delivery risk is multiplicatively related to commodity price risk, the firm will under- or over-hedge this exposure. For constant relative risk aversion, this is illustrated by a numerical example.delivery risk, futures, risk management, production

Cross-hedging of correlated exchange rates

This paper examines the behavior of a competitive exporting firm that exports to two foreign countries under multiple sources of exchange rate uncertainty. The firm has to cross-hedge its exchange rate risk exposure because there is only a forward market between the domestic currency and one foreign country's currency. When the firm optimally exports to both foreign countries, we show that the firm's production decision is independent of the firm's risk attitude and of the underlying exchange rate uncertainty. We show further that the firm's optimal forward position is an over-hedge or an under-hedge, depending on whether the two random exchange rates are positively or negatively correlated in the sense of expectation dependence. --correlated exchange rates,cross-hedging,exports,production

Transparency and Risk Sharing in International Trade

Broll U, Eckwert B, Wong KP. Transparency and Risk Sharing in International Trade. The Manchester School. 2014;82(6):716-731.The paper examines the impact of uncertainty on the decision problem of an international firm. The uncertainty under which the firm decides on home and foreign supply is affected by an information system that conveys public signals about the random spot exchange rate. Our notion of transparency proposes an information-based concept of uncertainty. In this setting, we revisit the link between the transparency in the foreign exchange market and the behavior of the international firm. The welfare of domestic consumers, in contrast, may increase or decrease with higher transparency in the foreign exchange market

Hedging and the Regret Theory of the Competitive Firm

This paper examines the production and hedging decisions of the competitive firm under price uncertainty when the firm is not only risk averse but also regret averse. Regret-averse preferences are characterized by a modified utility function that includes disutility from having chosen ex-post suboptimal alternatives. The extent of regret depends on the difference between the actual profit and the maximum profit attained by making the optimal production and hedging decisions had the firm observed the true realization of the random output price. While the separation theorem holds under regret aversion, the prevalence of hedging opportunities may have perverse effect on the firm's optimal output level, particularly when the firm is sufficiently regret averse. The full-hedging theorem, however, does not hold. We derive sufficient conditions under which the regret-averse firm's optimal futures position is an under-hedge (over-hedge). We further show that the firm optimally increases (decreases) its futures position when the price risk possesses more positive (negative) skewness

The Impact of Delivery Risk on Optimal Production and Futures Hedging

Multiple delivery specifications exist on nearly all commodity futures contracts. Sellers are typically allowed to choose among several grades of the underlying commodity. On the delivery day, the futures price converges to the spot price of the cheapest-to-deliver grade rather than to that of the par-delivery grade of the commodity, thereby imposing an additional delivery risk on hedgers. This paper derives the optimal production and futures hedging strategy for a risk-averse competitive firm facing delivery risk. We show that the option value of the multiple delivery specification induces the firm to produce more with than without the delivery risk if the firm gauges this value higher than the market. We further show that if the delivery risk is additively related to the commodity price risk, the firm optimally under-hedges its risk exposure. On the other hand, if the delivery risk is multiplicatively related to the commodity price risk, the firm may optimally choose an under- or over-hedge which we illustrate using a numerical example.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Hedging and the regret theory of the firm

This paper examines the production and hedging decisions of the competitive firm under price uncertainty when the firm is not only risk averse but also regret averse. Regret-averse preferences are characterized by a modified utility function that includes disutility from having chosen ex post suboptimal alternatives. The extent of regret depends on the difference between the actual profit and the maximum profit attained by making the optimal production, and hedging decisions had the firm observed the true realization of the random output price. While the separation theorem holds under regret aversion, the prevalence of hedging opportunities may have perverse effect on the firm’s optimal output level, particularly when the firm is sufficiently regret averse. The full-hedging theorem, however, does not hold. We derive sufficient conditions under which the regret-averse firm’s optimal futures position is an under-hedge (over-hedge). We further show that the firm optimally increases (decreases) its futures position when the price risk possesses more positive (negative) skewness