This paper has analysed the relationships between ROI and IRR in the case, where the real cash inflows
from the investment remain constant. If ROI is calculated using the initial capital expenditure as the
denominator, the graph of the difference between ROI and the internal rate of return decreases from the
origin as the internal rate of return becomes positive. Thus, the internal rate of return is higher than ROI
for low values of the former. As the internal rate of return increases, the difference grows and reaches its
maximum at a certain level (rm) of the internal rate of return. After this, the graph of g(r) is increasing,
and intersects the r-axis (ROI = r, the internal rate of return) at a point r0. The mathematical limit of g(r)
is in infinity.
Inflation reduces the distance between origin and the point r0. The higher the rate of inflation, the faster
ROI rises to the level of the internal rate of return. On the other hand, for a given rate of inflation (and
r > r0), the positive difference between ROI and r increases with the internal rate of return of the
investment. The effect of inflation on increasing g(r) is strengthened by lengthening the life of the
investment in question. For example, if the internal rate of return in nominal terms is 20%, the expected
length of life 40 years, and the rate of inflation 20%, the calculated value for ROI equals 1025%.
Even more generally, ROI overestimates the internal rate of return, if the expected service life of the
project is long, to such an extent that it should not be used to indicate profitability.
The distorting effect of inflation on ROI is even more severe, if the profitability of the investment, as
measured by its internal rate of return, is high.
It should be emphasized, however, that for sufficiently low values of r, ROI is lower than the internal
rate of return thus underestimating the latter. For example, if the rate of inflation is 10%, and the expected
length of life of the investment five years, ROI underestimated IRR up to the value of r = 36.7%. If the
length of life is increased to ten years, this underestimation occurs in the cases where the internal rate of
return is 20% or less, and for an investment with an estimated service life of forty years, the relevant region
ends with an internal rate of return of only 1.7%. Thus, ROI underestimates the internal rate of return of
projects with a short expected length of life, and overestimates it for projects with longer expected service
lives (see also Merrett and Sykes (1976, p. 210)).
If the average invested capital is used in the denominator of ROI instead of the initial capital
expenditure, ROI is 2n/(n + 1) times as large as in the previous case. The graph of the difference function
ROI - r still starts from the origin of the (r, g(r)) space, but never becomes negative. This means that ROI
is always larger than the nominal internal rate of return, and this difference grows with the internal rate of
return. ROI overestimates IRR irrespective of the length of the service life, and this overestimation
increases with rising rates of inflation. Therefore, if ROI is based on the concept of average invested
capital, its interpretation should be even more careful than in the previous case, especially if the projects
under examination are very profitable a n d / o r have long expected service lives.
These conclusions are valid even under conditions of stable prices, if the cash inflow from the
investment grows at an annual rate of s (both in real and nominal terms). This results from the pre-tax
approach adopted in this paper.
- the depreciation method: IRR is based on annuity depreciation, in ROI the straight line depreciation is usually applied;
- the service life of the investment: due to the lack of discounting in ROI, the two indices differ more the longer the service life;
- inflation: under inflation ROI also contains apparent profitability due to nominal increase of the cash-flows.
In the paper a mathematical model is constructed for comparing the behaviour of ROI and IRR in the constant real cash-flow case. In
the model the difference between ROI and IRR is expressed as a function of three parameters: the profitability of the investment, the
service life and the rate of inflation. Both analytical and simulated numerical solutions for the model are derived. On the basis of the
results a clear description of the effects of the parameters on the relationships between ROI and IRR is obtained and, thus, several
conclusions and recommendations for the usefulness of ROI can be made.