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In economics and accounting, the cost of capital is the cost of a company's funds (both debt and equity), or from an investor's point of view is "the required rate of return on a portfolio company's existing securities". [1] It is used to evaluate new projects of a company.
It is composed of goods manufactured in the production and often imported from foreign countries. In this sense, capital is internationally mobile and the result of past economic activity. The concept of capital as natural endowment distorts the real role of capital. Capital is a production power accumulated by the past investment.
Every decision in the product development process affects cost: design is typically considered to account for 70–80% of the final cost of a project such as an engineering project [1] or the construction of a building. [2] In the public sector, cost reduction programs can be used where income is reduced or to reduce debt levels. [3]
Capital expenditures are the funds used to acquire or upgrade a company's fixed assets, such as expenditures towards property, plant, or equipment (PP&E). [3] In the case when a capital expenditure constitutes a major financial decision for a company, the expenditure must be formalized at an annual shareholders meeting or a special meeting of the Board of Directors.
With the European Commission according to its data bank "AMECO" (Annual Macro-Economic Data) the marginal efficiency of capital is defined as "Change in GDP at constant market prices of year T per unit of gross fixed capital formation at constant prices of year T-.5 [that is, lagged by half a year]. [2]
The capital charge is the cash flow required to compensate investors for the riskiness of the business given the amount of economic capital invested. The cost of capital is the minimum rate of return on capital required to compensate investors (debt and equity) for bearing risk, their opportunity cost.
Overall costs of capital projects are known to be subject to economies of scale. A crude estimate is that if the capital cost for a given sized piece of equipment is known, changing the size will change the capital cost by the 0.6 power of the capacity ratio (the point six to the power rule). [16] [d]
Capital costs are fixed, one-time expenses incurred on the purchase of land, buildings, construction, and equipment used in the production of goods or in the rendering of services. In other words, it is the total cost needed to bring a project to a commercially operable status.