Accounting Answers

CHAPTER 9

NET PRESENT VALUE AND OTHER INVESTMENT CRITERIA

Learning Objectives

LO1 How to compute the net present value and why it is the best decision criterion.

LO2 The payback rule and some of its shortcomings.

LO3 The discounted payback rule and some of its shortcomings.

LO4 Accounting rates of return and some of the problems with them.

LO5 The internal rate of return criterion and its strengths and weaknesses.

LO6 The modified internal rate of return.

LO7 The profitability index and its relation to net present value.

Answers to Concepts Review and Critical Thinking Questions

1. (LO2, 3) A payback period less than the project’s life means that the NPV is positive for a zero discount rate, but nothing more definitive can be said. For discount rates greater than zero, the payback period will still be less than the project’s life, but the NPV may be positive, zero, or negative, depending on whether the discount rate is less than, equal to, or greater than the IRR. The discounted payback includes the effect of the relevant discount rate. If a project’s discounted payback period is less than the project’s life, it must be the case that NPV is positive.

2. (LO2, 3, 6, 7) If a project has a positive NPV for a certain discount rate, then it will also have a positive NPV for a zero discount rate; thus, the payback period must be less than the project life. Since discounted payback is calculated at the same discount rate as is NPV, if NPV is positive, the discounted payback period must be less than the project’s life. If NPV is positive, then the present value of future cash inflows is greater than the initial investment cost; thus PI must be greater than 1. If NPV is positive for a certain discount rate R, then it will be zero for some larger discount rate R*; thus the IRR must be greater than the required return.

3. (LO2)

a. Payback period is simply the accounting break-even point of a series of cash flows. To actually...