Option theory offers a useful way of modeling land value under uncertainty. While this approach underlies much theoretical analysis, the unanswered question is, to what extent does the market value of land reflect this option value? This paper exploits a unique natural experiment to obtain the first direct estimates of the option value of land based on observed transactions. Comparing land sold under constraints that strip away real options to land sold in the same market without such restrictions, we find that approximately 45% of the market value of developable land represents the value of these embedded real options.

"Classic real options theory rests on two debatable assumptions: projects require a fixed investment and generate cash flows that follow a random walk. Relaxing both assumptions leads to radically different conclusions regarding the optimal timing of investment. We model investment using a Stone-Geary production function (Leontief and Cobb-Douglas are special cases) and growth as a mean-reverting Brownian motion. The solution method for this option valuation problem is non-trivial because the state space is two dimensional (level of the cash flow and its growth). For Leontief, the optimal policy is intuitive; the moment of investment involves a trade-off between the level of the cash ow and its growth. For Cobb-Douglas, in contrast, the optimal moment of investment depends only on the growth. More surprisingly, investment should be delayed when growth is high. This conclusion persists in the general Stone-Geary case. Applied to urban real estate, this suggests that up to 20% of cities should delay new construction because of high growth. The option value of vacant land may represent 60% of the value of new construction. High prices of vacant land may thus result from rational investor behavior rather than regulatory inefficiency. Our analysis should be widely applicable, for example to investment in high-growth companies."--Abstract.

Classic real options theory rests on two debatable assumptions: projects require a fixed investment and generate cash flows that follow a random walk. Relaxing both assumptions leads to radically different conclusions regarding the optimal timing of investment. We model investment using a Stone-Geary production function (Leontief and Cobb-Douglas are special cases) and growth as a mean-reverting Brownian motion. The solution method for this option valuation problem is non-trivial because the state space is two dimensional (level of the cash flow and its growth). For Leontief, the optimal policy is intuitive; the moment of investment involves a trade-off between the level of the cash ow and its growth. For Cobb-Douglas, in contrast, the optimal moment of investment depends only on the growth. More surprisingly, investment should be delayed when growth is high. This conclusion persists in the general Stone-Geary case. Applied to urban real estate, this suggests that up to 20% of cities should delay new construction because of high growth. The option value of vacant land may represent 60% of the value of new construction. High prices of vacant land may thus result from rational investor behavior rather than regulatory inefficiency. Our analysis should be widely applicable, for example to investment in high-growth companies.

This study is an ex-ante and ex-post test of market efficiency for the options on Treasury bond futures contracts traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. All options and future contracts price changes were examined from market inception, in October 1982, through the middle of June 1983 for violations of put-call parity and long box spread arbitrage opportunities. Out of 81,338 option price changes, 891 changes provided ex-post arbitrage opportunities with average ex-ante profits of $54 per trade for put-call parity strategies and $117 per trade for long box spread strategies. Ex-ante profit opportunities were largest in the early months of trading and had almost disappeared by June 1983.