Question

What would be the consequences if managers of a firm evaluated a project based on its actual dollar cash flows, but used a real rate to discount the cash flows? Would the project be more likely to be accepted, or more likely to be rejected? What kind of error could be committed? Please provide an example of how a project evaluation was affected by inflation considerations, either from your own experience, or do some online search for examples.

Answer 1

Real rate of returns are lower than nominal rates of return, therefore, using a real discount rate would overestimate a project's net present value. This could result in unprofitable projects being accepted because the NPV was erroneously calculated. If you want to use a real discount rate, you must first convert cash flows to real dollars.

For example, nominal discount rate is 10%, inflation rate is 5%, real discount rate is 5%.

Initial outlay $100

NCF year 1 = $40

NCF year 2 = $40

NCF year 3 = $40

Using the real discount rate, the NPV = $8.93

Using the nominal discount rate, the NPV = -$0.53