Accounting measures are traditionally considered not significant from an economic point of view. In particular, accounting rates of return are often regarded economically meaningless or, at the very best, poor surrogates for the IRR, which is held to be "the" economic yield. Likewise, residual...

Business economics does not provide any methodology for appraising strategic investments, relying on informal approaches. Conversely, financial economics offers us plenty of sophisticated mathematical models unsuitable for applications and based on unrealistic assumptions. This paper presents an...

The Net Present Value maximizing model has a respectable ancestry and is considered by most scholars a theoretically sound decision model. In real-life applications, decision makers use the NPV rule, but apply a subjectively determined hurdle rate, as opposed to the allegedly correct opportunity...

Frequently analysts and teachers use the capitalized rate of interest for the cost of debt when forecasting and discounting cash flows. On the other hand, some authors (and analysts) estimate the interest payments when forecasting annual financial statements or cash flows based on the average of...

In a forthcoming paper, Fernandez (2002) claims to derive a formula for the valuation of debt tax shields for firms with cash flows that grow perpetually at a constant rate. We show that his formula is incorrect and provide an example where his valuation would admit arbitrage.

This article explores the behavior of the stock market in Colombia with the information given by the Bolsa de Bogota Index (Indice de la Bolsa de Bogota, IBB). The index is analyzed from January, 1930 to December, 1998. The inflation rate covers the same period; the inflation rate as measured by...