Title
Optimal Investment in Research and Development Under Uncertainty.
Abstract
This paper explores the optimal expenditure rate that a firm should employ to develop a new technology and pursue the registration of the related patent. We consider an economic environment with industrial competition among firms operating in the same sector and in the presence of uncertainty in knowledge accumulation. We tackle a stochastic optimal control problem with random horizon and solve it theoretically by adopting a dynamic programming approach. An extensive numerical analysis suggests that the optimal expenditure rate is a decreasing function in time, and its sensitivity to uncertainty depends on the stage of the race. The odds for the firm to preempt the rivals nonlinearly depend on the degree of competition in the market.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1007/s10957-015-0751-7
Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications
Keywords
Field
DocType
Expenditure rate, R&D, Patent race, Stochastic control problem, Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation, 90B50, 65N06
Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation,Dynamic programming,Mathematical optimization,Mathematical economics,Horizon,Odds,Numerical analysis,Mathematics,Stochastic control
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
168
1
1573-2878
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.39
5
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Roy Cerqueti14115.85
Daniele Marazzina2366.82
Marco Ventura311.06