article thumbnail

Why Those Guys Won the Economics Nobels

Harvard Business Review

Back in the ‘60s, people developed the capital asset pricing model [CAPM] as a way to do that. A mini-glossary: beta is the amount that an individual stock fluctuates relative to the overall stock market, and the equity premium is the difference in expected return between stocks and a “riskless” asset such as Treasury bonds.].

CAPM 8
article thumbnail

Why Sit on All that Cash? Firms Uncertain on Cost of Capital

Harvard Business Review

In estimating the cost of equity, nearly nine out of ten organizations use the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), which calculates the cost of equity using a risk-free rate, beta factor, and a market risk premium, each of which introduces significant variability.