The effects of external financing costs on investment timing and sizing decisions

We develop a dynamic model in which a firm exercises an option to expand production on either a small or large scale with cash reserves and costly external funds. An intermediate level of cash reserves, which is insufficient for the large-scale investment but sufficient for the small-scale investment, provides an incentive for the firm to invest early in the small-scale project. These results fill the gap between two types of results: (i) empirical findings of a U-shaped relation between the investment volume and internal funds and (ii) empirical predictions of a U-shaped relation between the investment timing and internal funds. In addition, our results have real-world implications for investment in alternative projects. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.