Estimation of the rate of return to capital in the East African Community (EAC) Countries

The real rate of return to capital plays a vital part in the economy in evaluating the contribution of capital investment to the economic growth. As it is also a key variable in estimating the economic opportunity cost of capital for use as the economic discount rate in investment decision-making. The objective of this study is to estimate the economic real rates of return to reproducible and remunerative capital of the EAC economies. The results indicate that the real rates of return to reproducible capital over the period 1999-2016 have averaged 10.70% in Kenya and Rwanda, while it averaged 12.05% and 9.86% in Tanzania and Uganda, respectively. With regard to the marginal rates of return to remunerative capital, the results suggest that EAC countries have averaged 16.28%, 16.21%, 15.07% and 14.49% in Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda, respectively, over the same period.