A Firm's Cost of Capital
本文综述了企业资本成本的学术文献，包括股权成本、债务成本及其权重的估计方法，以及不同估计方法背后的假设，帮助理解如何评估投资项目是否创造价值。
To create value, a firm must invest in projects that provide a return greater than the cost of capital. The cost of capital is not observed and its estimation requires assumptions on investors’ consumption, savings, and portfolio decisions. We review the academic literature on firms’ cost of financial capital and the estimation of the different components: cost of equity, cost of debt, and their relative weights. We also review various approaches to estimating the cost of capital and the assumptions justifying these approaches.