Splitting Up Value: A Critical Review of Residual Income Theories

European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 198, No. 1, pp. 1-22, October 2009

45 Pages Posted: 16 Sep 2008 Last revised: 17 Sep 2010

See all articles by Carlo Alberto Magni

Carlo Alberto Magni

Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) - School of Doctorate E4E (Engineering for Economics-Economics for Engineering)

Date Written: October 1, 2009

Abstract

This paper deals with the notion of residual income, which may be defined as the surplus profit that residues after a capital charge (opportunity cost) has been covered. While the origins of the notion trace back to the 19th century, in-depth theoretical investigations and widespread real-life applications are relatively recent and concern an interdisciplinary field connecting management accounting, corporate finance and financial mathematics (Peasnell, 1981, 1982; Peccati, 1987, 1989, 1991; Stewart, 1991; Ohlson, 1995; Arnold and Davies, 2000; Young and O'Byrne, 2001; Martin, Petty and Rich, 2003). This paper presents both a historical outline of its birth and development and an overview of the main recent contributions regarding capital budgeting decisions, production and sales decisions, implementation of optimal portfolios, forecasts of asset prices and calculation of intrinsic values. A most recent theory, the systemic-value-added approach (also named lost-capital paradigm), provides a different definition of residual income, consistent with arbitrage theory. Enfolded in Keynes's (1936) notion of user cost and fore run by Pressacco and Stucchi (1997), the theory has been formally introduced in Magni (2000a,b,c; 2001a,b; 2003), where its properties are thoroughly investigated as well as its relations with the standard theory; two different lost-capital metrics have been considered, for value-based management purposes, by Drukarczyk and Schueler (2000) and Young and O'Byrne (2001). This work illustrates the main properties of the two theories and their relations, and provides a minimal guide to construction of performance metrics in the two approaches.

Keywords: Accounting, finance, residual income, excess profit, firm valuation, net present value, opportunity cost, performance measurement

JEL Classification: M41, G11, G12, B40, G3, G31, M21, M52, D46

Suggested Citation

Magni, Carlo Alberto, Splitting Up Value: A Critical Review of Residual Income Theories (October 1, 2009). European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 198, No. 1, pp. 1-22, October 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1268047

Carlo Alberto Magni (Contact Author)

Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) - School of Doctorate E4E (Engineering for Economics-Economics for Engineering) ( email )

Italy

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
588
Abstract Views
3,441
Rank
84,912
PlumX Metrics