Discount factor

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Revision as of 12:52, 13 March 2015 by imported>Doug Williamson (Clarify that 'yield' and 'cost of capital' are equivalent in this context.)
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(DF).


1.

Strictly, the number less than one which we multiply a future cash flow by, to work out its present value as:

PV = DF x future cashflow.


The periodic discount factor is calculated from the periodic yield as:

DF = (1 + periodic yield)-1


Commonly abbreviated as DF(n,r) or DFn,r


where

n = number of periods, and

r = periodic yield (cost of capital).


Examples

For example,

when the periodic cost of capital (r) = 6%

and the number of periods in the total time under review (n) = 1, then:

Discount factor = (1+r)-n

= 1.06-1

= 0.9434


The greater the time delay, the smaller the Discount Factor.

For example,

when the periodic cost of capital = 6% as before,

but the number of periods delay increases to 2, then:

Discount factor = (1+r)-n

= 1.06-2

= 0.8890

(A smaller figure than the 0.9434 we calculated previously for just one period's delay.)


2.

Loosely,the yield or cost of capital used for the purpose of calculating Discount Factors.

For example the 6% rate applied in definition 1. above.


See also