f. Capital projects with nonnormal cash flows have a large cash outflow either
sometime during or at the end of their lives. A common problem encountered when
evaluating projects with nonnormal cash flows is multiple IRRs. A project has
normal cash flows if one or more cash outflows (costs) are followed by a series of
cash inflows.
g. The mathematics of the NPV method imply that project cash flows are reinvested at
h. A replacement chain is a method of comparing mutually exclusive projects that have
unequal lives. Each project is replicated such that they will both terminate in a
common year. If projects with lives of 3 years and 5 years are being evaluated, the 3–
year project would be replicated 5 times and the 5-year project replicated 3 times;
thus, both projects would terminate in 15 years. Not all projects maximize their NPV
if operated over their engineering lives and therefore it may be best to terminate a
project prior to its potential life. The economic life is the number of years a project
should be operated to maximize its NPV, and is often less than the maximum
potential life. Capital rationing occurs when a firm’s management limits its capital
10-2 Projects requiring greater investments or that have greater risk should be given detailed
analysis the capital budgeting process.
10-3 The NPV is obtained by discounting future cash flows, and the discounting process
actually compounds the interest rate over time. Thus, an increase in the discount rate has
a much greater impact on a cash flow in Year 5 than on a cash flow in Year 1.