A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO CALCULATING COSTS OF EQUITY FOR INVESTMENTS IN EMERGING MARKETS

While most financial economists argue that multinational corporations (MNCs) should use discount rates that reflect only "systematic" or "covariance" risks when evaluating offshore projects, the managers of most MNCs do not appear to follow this prescription of the CAPM. Instead they favor use of discount rates that reflect the "total risk" of emerging-market investments (as evidenced, for example, by the comments of the executives in the Roundtable discussion that immediately precedes this article). 1996 Morgan Stanley.