Cost-Benefit Analysis

Cost-benefit analysis: a practical guide is a complete guide to the principles and practice of using cost-benefit analysis (CBA) effectively for making better decisions and allocating resources.

This comprehensive and accessible text can be used without prior knowledge of economics, and provides the necessary skills to understand the rationale of CBA, interpret and use existing analyses, and undertake basic CBA unaided.

The second edition of this popular guide:

Takes a practical approach to CBA, providing examples for readers
Deals explicitly with probabilities and risk
Shows how social, environmental and political aspects can be taken into account
Gives guidance on using computer software and avoiding its pitfalls
Describes the application of CBA to many sectors, including health, education, transport, and water
Includes guidance on the presentation and reporting of analyses to multiple audiences
Guides readers to sources of more specialised advice
Describes multi-criterion decision analyses

Written by a practitioner, rather than an economist, and based on many years' experience of using CBA, Cost-benefit analysis: a practical guide is a detailed learning aide for students and practitioners. It will also serve as a useful reference book for all, with an extensive glossary and index.

Contents

Basic principles of cost-benefit analysis
Quantifying and valuing the costs and benefits
Resources and time: discounting and indicators
Application to particular fields
Reporting and presentation
Checklist
Uncertainty, probability and risk
The domestic pricing and foreign exchange numéraires
Ways of estimating economic prices
Distribution of costs and benefits between people
Choice of discount rate
Multi-criterion decision analysis
The effects method
Model answers to readers' worked examples
Worked example
Discounting tables
Bibliography
Notes
Glossary/index