Cost-Benefit Analysis

3rd Edition
Hardcover: 576 pages
ISBN 0131435833
Prentice Hall / Pearson
December 2005
(click below for the best currently available price for this important resource)

This is the authoritative, market leading guide. It is distinct for it's consistent application of a nine-step framework for conducting or interpreting a cost-benefit analysis.

This book uses numerous up-to-date illustrations and examples to show readers how theories and techniques are applied to real situations. Readers are provided with useable tools, practical orientation and introduction to cost-benefit analysis with problem solving.

This book has been written for finance professionals needing project specific assistance, or for economics majors, graduate professional programs in public policy, business, public administration, or as a supplement to courses in public finance, public-sector economics, policy analysis and public-sector decision making. Managers and department leaders may also be bolstered with the information in this book when their superiors ask them to show cost / benefit analyses for projects or capital programs they are promoting.

This book now provides a clearer presentation of the methods employed to construct quality-adjusted life-years: the health rating method, the time tradeoff method, and the standard gamble. It also introduces the major health indexes that researchers are currently using to translate changes in health status to changes in quality of life. This should make the chapter more useful to those working in the health and safety areas, as well as provide readers with a higher understanding of the health industry. Topics include:

Introduction to Cost-Benefit Analysis
Conceptual Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Basic Microeconomic Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis
Valuing Benefits and Costs in Primary Markets
Valuing Benefits and Costs in Secondary Markets
Discounting Benefits and Costs in Future Time Periods
Dealing with Uncertainty: Expected Value, Sensitivity Analysis, and the Value of Information
Option Price and Option Value
Existence Value
The Social Discount Rate
Valuing Impacts from Observed Behavior: Demonstrations
Valuing Impacts from Observed Behavior: Direct Estimation of Demand Curves
Valuing Impacts from Observed Behavior: Other Revealed Preference Methods
Contingent Valuation: Using Surveys to Elicit Information About Costs and Benefits
Shadow Prices from Secondary Sources
Shadow Prices: Applications to Developing Countries
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
Distributionally Weighted Cost-Benefit Analysis
How Accurate is CBA?

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 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 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 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 Minister’s 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.

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