Economic profit, NPV, and CAPM: Biases and violations of Modigliani and Miller's Proposition I

Magni, Carlo Alberto (2005): Economic profit, NPV, and CAPM: Biases and violations of Modigliani and Miller's Proposition I. Forthcoming in: The ICFAI Journal of Applied Finance

Abstract

For one–period projects under certainty, the notion of Net Present Value (NPV) formally translates the notion of economic profit, where the discount rate is the cost of capital. Under uncertainty, the cost of capital is the expected rate of return of an equivalent-risk alternative that the investor might undertake and is often found by making recourse to the Capital Asset Pricing Model. This paper shows that the notions of disequilibrium NPV and economic profit for risky one-period projects are not equivalent: NPV-minded agents are open to framing effects and to arbitrage losses, which imply violations of Modigliani and Miller’s Proposition I. The notion of disequilibrium (present) value, deductively derived from the CAPM by several authors and widely used in applied corporate finance, should therefore be dismissed

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Capital Asset Pricing Model, net present value, economic profit, disequilibrium, framing effects, arbitrage, Modigliani and Miller's Proposition I
• Subjects: G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G12 - Asset Pricing ; Trading Volume ; Bond Interest Rates; G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G11 - Portfolio Choice ; Investment Decisions; G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G31 - Capital Budgeting ; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies ; Capacity; G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G32 - Financing Policy ; Financial Risk and Risk Management ; Capital and Ownership Structure ; Value of Firms ; Goodwill; G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G10 - General; G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G30 - General

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