Survey evidence suggests that hurdle rates used in DCF analysis are often considerably
in excess of any plausible estimate of firms’ cost of capital, and that top level decision
makers often impose additional short payback thresholds. This paper focuses on the value
loss that can arise under such ‘short termist’ decision criteria. It is shown that using such
decision rules can help to protect the firm against the total value loss that can arise from
the application of the naïve NPV decision rule, and that, for projects with growth prospects
and/or moderate or greater volatility in future operating cash flows, the value loss (relative to
‘optimal decision-making’) which arises when firms impose fixed ‘short termist’ thresholds
can be quite small.