Description
For courses in Cost-Benefit Analysis, taught in Economics Departments, Public Policy
Departments, and Public Administration Departments. Also ideal forpracticing policy
analysts andpublic managers.
This authoritative, market leading text is distinct for it's consistent application of a
nine-step framework for conducting or interpreting a cost-benefit analysis.
Table of Contents
Part I: Overview
1. Introduction to Cost-Benefit Analysis
2. Conceptual Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Part II: Fundamentals of Cost-Benefit Analysis
3. Basic Microeconomic Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis
4. Valuing Benefits and Costs in Primary Markets
5. Valuing Benefits and Costs in Secondary Markets
6. Discounting Benefits and Costs in Future Time Periods
7. Dealing with Uncertainty: Expected Value, Sensitivity Analysis, and the Value of
Information
8. Option Price and Option Value
9. Existence Value
10. The Social Discount Rate
Part III: Valuation of Impacts
11. Valuing Impacts from Observed Behavior: Demonstrations
12. Valuing Impacts from Observed Behavior: Direct Estimation of Demand Curves
13. Valuing Impacts from Observed Behavior: Other Revealed Preference Methods
14. Contingent Valuation: Using Surveys to Elicit Information About Costs and Benefits
15. Shadow Prices from Secondary Sources
16. Shadow Prices: Applications to Developing Countries
Part IV: Related Methods and Accuracy
17. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
18. Distributionally Weighted Cost-Benefit Analysis
19. How Accurate is CBA?
A Selected Cost-Benefit Analysis Bibliography
Name Index
Subject Index
Features
For courses in Cost-Benefit Analysis, taught in Economics Departments, Public Policy
Departments, and Public Administration Departments. Also ideal forpracticing policy
analysts andpublic managers.
This authoritative, market leading text is distinct for its consistent application of a
nine-step framework for conducting or interpreting a cost-benefit analysis.
Do students often feel as though doing a cost-benefit analysis is too complex? Do they get
lost in the process, unsure of what step to take next?
The authors break a CBA down into nine basic steps to help make the process of conducting
and/or interpreting a CBA more manageable. They first illustrate these nine steps in
Chapter 1, with the straightforward example of the Coquihalla Highway project. This dry
run gives students an opportunity to see the practical realities of the entire CBA process
early, before getting into technical detail. The conceptual and practical issues
introduced in this example are then more fully developed throughout the rest of the book.
"Do you want authors who can provide your students with an accurate and realistic
understanding of Cost-Benefit Analysis, from both theoretical and applied level?"
Boardman, Weimer, Vining, and Greenberg have each contributed to field as prolific
researchers, and their collective experience in consulting brings a true, realistic, and
applied foundation to this book. More on the author team can be found in the "Author
Bio" tab.
OTHER POINTS OF DISTINCTION
Do your students come to class with varied sets of skills and interests?
In order to be appropriate for a diverse audience, the book emphasizes clear discussion
over formal mathematics, and also emphasizes application over abstract theory.
Nevertheless, it still covers important, if difficult, conceptual issues in adequate
detail both as a framework for thoughtful application and as a basis for further study.
Do you want to develop students understanding for the political and societal realities of
CBA?
Throughout the text, the authors also pay special attention to integrating the political
realities of CBA, so all readers understand how CBA can facilitate a more efficient
allocation of societys resources.
Example: pg.
About Author
Anthony Boardman
Anthony E. Boardman is the Van Dusen Professor of Business Administration at the
University of British Columbia. His publications on cost-benefit analysis have appeared in
many leading academic journals including the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management,
Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Annals of Regional Science, and the Journal of
Comparative Policy Analysis Research and Practice. He has also served as a consultant for
the Treasury of New Zealand and all levels of government in Canada.
David Weimer
David L. Weimer is professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He
has published work involving the application of cost-benefit analysis to energy policy and
the use of contingent valuation surveys. He also has contributed entries on cost-benefit
analysis to the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences and the
New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd edition).
Aidan R. Vining
Aidan R. Vining is the CNABS Professor of Business and Government Relations in the Faculty
of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia
(Canada) and holds a Ph.D. from the Goldman Graduate School of Public Policy at the
University of California, Berkeley. His articles related to cost-benefit analysis have
appeared in a wide range of journals. In addition to authoring these articles, Dr. Vining
is the author of Policy Analysis; Concepts and Practice with David Weimer (4th. Edition,
Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2005) and has recently co-edited Building the Future: Issues in
Public Infrastructure in Canada (C.D. Howe) which analyzes the costs and benefits of major
infrastructure projects in Canada. Over the last twenty five years, he has taught numerous
courses and seminars on cost-benefit analysis and policy analysis to government analysts
in countries around the world
David Greenberg
David Greenberg is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Maryland
Baltimore County (UMBC). In 2002 he worked as a labor market analyst at the Prime
Ministers Strategy Unit within the British Cabinet Office, helping design a random
assignment evaluation of a pilot program that attempts to help retain disadvantaged
workers in employment and aid their advancement and is currently working on the
cost-benefit analysis of this pilot program. In addition, he is presently responsible for
the cost-benefit analyses of two on-going U.K. programs: the New Deal for Disabled Persons
and has taught a course in cost-benefit analysis at UMBC for many years.
Hardcover
576 pages
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