The discount rate in calculating the budgetary efficiency of investment projects: approaches and methods

Abstract

The question of discounting (and justifying the discount rate) in relation to the effects on the budget of a country or region arises not only in connection with "classic" investment projects implemented by businesses in a certain territory, but also in connection with any management decisions requiring budget expenditures and/or implying an analysis of alternative solutions. The purpose of the work is to analyze and systematize normative and/or author's scientifically based methodological approaches to the selection and justification of the discount rate for evaluating the budgetary effectiveness of investment projects (and other management decisions). The subject of the study is the selection and justification of the discount rate for the purpose of evaluating deferred effects in calculating the budgetary efficiency of investment projects, taking into account the time value of money. Based on the analysis and systematization of available approaches and methods for constructing the discount rate in assessing deferred effects of budget efficiency based on domestic and foreign materials of normative, methodological and scientific literature, an algorithm for constructing and justifying the discount rate is proposed. The analysis of normative, methodological and normative literature has shown that today all the main approaches to the construction and justification of the discount rate when assessing deferred effects in calculating budget efficiency can be grouped by areas of application and the following can be distinguished: assessment of the effectiveness of investment projects with state participation (budget financing); assessment of the effectiveness of public-private partnership projects and municipal-private partnerships (including special economic zones); assessment of the effectiveness of tax benefits/ tax expenditures (and other changes in tax legislation); assessment of the effectiveness of various non-tax measures and measures to support and stimulate the development of certain industries and categories of economic entities; assessment of the effectiveness of projects in the public sector of the economy (provision of public goods, including regulatory impact assessment (when adopting and subsequent analysis of government regulatory measures), assessment of measures and technologies for managing risks to life and health of the population. The proposed algorithm for selecting and justifying the discount rate for calculating the budgetary efficiency of investment projects will allow taking into account the industry' specifics of projects.