Cost Benefit Analysis And Distributional Preferences

Cost_Benefit Analysis and Distributional Preferences

'Helen Scarborough and Jeff Bennett have produced a work that is genuinely path-breaking. As is often the case with path-breaking work, the idea is simple enough: if people can respond to choice experiments in ways that tell us a lot about what they value and how much they value it, why would they not be able to respond to choice experiments where the options offered have different distributional consequences? Such simple ideas evade implementation not because they are so hard to think up, but because it is so easy to dismiss them as unthinkable. All credit goes to Scarborough and Bennett for busting through this particular unthinkability barrier. . . [The authors] may be surprised by the magnitude and the nature of the impact this work eventually enjoys.' From the foreword by Alan Randall, The University of Sydney, Australia and The Ohio State University, US This pathbreaking study illustrates and enhances the potential of costbenefit analysis as a tool for decision-making. Advancing the incorporation of equity preferences in policy analysis, the authors demonstrate the application of choice modelling to the estimation of distributional weights suitable for inclusion in a costbenefit analytical framework. A platform for discussion of the challenges and opportunities of this approach is presented in the form of a detailed case study designed to estimate community preferences for different intergenerational distributions. While the case study is focused on natural resource management and environmental policy, the conceptual and methodological advances illustrated by the authors are relevant and applicable to a wider array of policy deliberations. This book will prove a challenging and thought-provoking read for academics, students and policymakers with an interest in environmental issues and/or public sector economics.

Income Distributional Preferences Within Cost-benefit Analysis Criterion

Advanced Introduction to Cost–Benefit Analysis

This concise yet comprehensive introduction aims to outline the core principles of Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA), laying them out in an accessible manner with minimum technical detail. The applied nature of the subject is emphasized by showing how each of the principles is applied to an actual public policy intervention, covering transport, education, health and the environment. Robert Brent demonstrates how economic efficiency and equity can be combined as social objectives to help determine decisions that can increase satisfaction for all.