Separate Cash Flow Evaluations - Applications to Investment Decisions and Tax Design

Abstract:     
Oil project assessment using separate cashflow valuation (Jacoby and Laughton, 1992, Laughton and Jacoby, 1993 and Emhjellen, 1999), presume that the present value of the cost cashflow of oil projects can be calculated using a risk free rate. This paper examines whether this practice, at least to a first approximation, is reasonable. More specifically, the paper examines whether labour wage hours costs and steel prices, as cost factors in the investment cost stream, are systematic cost factors (i.e. have a beta different from zero). The paper also investigates whether oil price as a factor in the revenue stream is a systematic revenue factor. Separate cash flow evaluation has been discussed in relation to petroleum taxation. A petroleum tax commission in Norway stated that tax reductions due to depreciation should separately be discounted by a risk free rate. We discuss the role of partial cash flow discounting in tax design.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 29

working papers series