Is there a need for another work on cost-benefit analysis? We are content to accept the market verdict on that question; three features of the work merit consideration by prospective readers. First, the central aspect of each case-study is the detailed setting out of the calculations. Our reading of the literature convinces us that this is an area which most precursor texts have regarded as far too mundane to treat seriously. However, students expecting to manage cost-benefit appraisals in their future careers will have to acquire skills in the construction and interpretation of cost and benefit data streams. We hope that these examples will provide an introduction to those skills. Second, the emphasis here is on cost-benefit analysis as a management aid. Enough has been said in the literature for students to appreciate that it is often difficult to quantify and evaluate the impacts assessed in an appraisal. Accordingly, practioners rarely claim to produce a definitive cost-benefit statement.
Rather, the analyst attempts to disclose the "model" which confronts the decision-maker: benefit and cost outcomes may vary with different assumptions about the physical impacts; they may vary as the values placed upon key outputs are changed; and they may vary as the time profile of the benefits and costs is altered. All the potential sources of variation in model results should be disclosed. Each case study stresses the factors tending to increase managerial discretion, as opposed to those factors limiting the range of choice. Third, in a number of cost-benefit appraisals there are residual categories of benefit and cost which prove impossible to evaluate. Nevertheless, managers will normally wish to take such non-valued impacts into account in weighing up their decision. It is possible to suggest methods which systematically integrate non-valued impacts into the analysis. Where appropriate, we show how this can be done.
- ISBN10 0333480392
- ISBN13 9780333480397
- Publish Date 9 July 1990 (first published 21 June 1990)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 13 August 1998
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Format Paperback (UK Trade)
- Pages 304
- Language English