The recent notion of Average Internal Rate of Return (AIRR) [Magni 2010, The Engineering Economist, 55(2), 150-180] completely solves the long-standing problem of the internal rate of return (IRR). While the AIRR is a return measure, this paper presents a cash-flow measure, namely the ratio of...

This paper aims to provide a foundation for the notion of economic rate of return and investigate its relations with accounting rates of return. Introducing the notion of depreciation class (the set of depreciation schedules with the same aggregate book value) it is shown that the mean of the...

This paper analyzes the net-present-value (NPV) model, a keystone in economics: Behaviors and lines of reasoning of NPV-minded decision makers are observed and analyzed. As a result, one finds out that the NPV methodology is biased and its decision makers fall prey to various forms of fallacies...

In both finance and accounting, the Return On Equity (ROE) is considered a biased indicator of economic profitability. Opposing this view, this paper shows that an appropriate mean of ROEs signals shareholder value creation. This implies that the notion of Market Value Added may be replaced by...

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...