I am reading a macro-finance article that deals with asset financing.
While it defines the gross interest rate to be $R$, it defines the net interest rate to be $r\equiv R-1$. In equilibrium, the interest rate on one-period loan is said to be $R=\frac{1}{\beta}$, where $\beta$ is the discount factor applied to the dividends firms obtain over an infinite horizon.
$\textbf{My Question}:$ How do you interpret the difference between $R$ and $r$? Is it conventional to define net interest in macro-finance literature in this way?