This note deals with the simplified case of a principal (e.g., a firm's board of directors) which delegates execution of an economic activity to a business unit (or a subsidiary firm) managed by a manager. It is assumed that the manager has no control over the cash flows injected into the unit...

The internal rate of return (IRR) is often used by managers and practitioners for investment decisions. Unfortunately, it has serious flaws: among others, (i) multiple real-valued IRRs may arise, (ii) complex-valued IRRs may arise, (iii) the IRR is, in general, incompatible with the net present...

This paper shows that the notion of rate of return is best understood through the lens of the average-internal-rate-of-return (AIRR) model, first introduced in Magni (2010a). It is an NPV-consistent approach based on a coherent definition of rate of return and on the notion of Chisini mean, it...

This paper deals with capital budgeting decisions under uncertainty. We present an Aggregate Return On Investment (AROI), obtained as the ratio of total (undiscounted) cash flow to total invested capital and show that it is a genuine rate of return which, compared with the risk-adjusted cost of...

This paper expands Teichroew, Robichek and Montalbano's (TRM) (1965a, b) rate-of-return model into a complete and general model of economic profitability for investment decision-making. Specifically, TRM's assumptions are relaxed and a project rate of return is derived, expressing the project's...

Discounted cash flows methods such as Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return are often used interchangeably or even together for assessing value creation in industrial and engineering projects. Notwithstanding its difficulties of applicability and reliability, the internal rate of return...

The IRR problem. As widely known, the IRR has serious flaws: (i)multiple real-valued IRRs may arise, (ii) the meaning of each IRR may be ambiguous (rate of return or rate of cost?), (iii) complex-valued IRRs may arise, (iv) the IRR is, in general, incompatible with the net present value (NPV) in...

This note deals with the case of a principal (e.g., a firm's board of directors) which delegates execution of an economic activity to a business unit (or a subsidiary firm) managed by a manager. It is assumed that the manager has no control over the cash flows injected into the unit or withdrawn...

The IRR problem. As widely known, the IRR has serious flaws: (i)multiple real-valued IRRs may arise, (ii) the meaning of each IRR may be ambiguous (rate of return or rate of cost?), (iii)complex-valued IRRs may arise, (iv) the IRR is, in general, incompatible with the net present value (NPV) in...

The internal rate of return (IRR) is often used by managers and practitioners for investment decisions. Unfortunately, it has serious flaws: (i) multiple real-valued IRRs may arise, (ii) complex-valued IRRs may arise, (iii) the IRR is, in general, incompatible with the net present value (NPV) in...