PFE, Chapter 3: Capital budgeting 1
CHAPTER 3: INTRODUCTION TO CAPITAL BUDGETING
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slight bug fix: September 7, 2003
Chapter contents
Overview......................................................................................................................................... 2
3.1. The NPV rule for judging investments and projects............................................................... 3
3.2. The IRR rule for judging investments .................................................................................... 6
3.3. NPV or IRR, which to use?..................................................................................................... 8
3.4. The “Yes-No” criterion: When do IRR and NPV give the same answer?........................... 10
3.5. Do NPV and IRR produce the same project rankings?......................................................... 12
3.6. Capital budgeting principle: Ignore sunk costs and consider only marginal cash flows..... 17
3.7. Capital budgeting principle: Don’t forget the effects of taxes—Sally and Dave’s condo
investment..................................................................................................................................... 18
3.8. Capital budgeting and salvage values................................................................................... 30
3.9. Capital budgeting principle: Don’t forget the cost of foregone opportunities..................... 36
3.10. In-house copying or outsourcing? A mini-case illustrating foregone opportunity costs ... 37
3.11. Accelerated depreciation..................................................................................................... 42
3.12. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 43
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Notice: This is a preliminary draft of a chapter of Principles of Finance with Excel by Simon
Benninga, which will be published in 2004. Much more material is posted on the PFE website
(http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu/~benninga/pfe.html). Check with the author before
distributing this draft (though you will probably get permission). All the material is copyright
and the rights belong to the author and MIT Press.