1. Outline of Lecture 1 Cost Benefit Analysis Total Economic Value
Definition and history
Welfare economics
Stages in CBA
Limitations, critiques
Alternatives to CBA
Total Economic Value
Definition
Role in CBA
Environmental valuation methods
An example: Rainforests

2. Cost Benefits Analysis (CBA)
Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) is an economic tool for government policy and investment project analysis used widely
Can incorporate environmental impacts of policies/projects within CBA to correct for market failure
“Social” appraisal of policies and projects, carried out by aggregation of benefits from, and costs of a policy/project over individuals and over time
Welfare theoretic underpinning: Economic efficiency with a temporal dimension

3. Cost Benefit Analysis Relates to the environment in three ways:
Projects/policies may have negative environmental effects, i.e. negative externalities (public and private)
Projects/policies may have positive externalities (public)
Projects/policies may have both positive and negative externalities (public and private)
Externalities should be included in CBA in order to correct for market failure

4. History of CBA- USA
1808 Comparing costs and benefits of water related projects
Until 1960s mainly used in water resources management
1960 onwards expanded to other public goods (wildlife, air quality)
Since 1970s CBA is required to support environmental decisions.

5. History of CBA-UK
1960s-1970s CBA used in transportation (M1 Motorway, London Victoria Underground, Channel Tunnel, Third London airport)
1990 UK Pearce Report recommended that environmental impacts should be brought to formal policy and project appraisal where possible
A government’s policies can affect the environment from street corner to stratosphere. Yet environmental costs and benefits have not been integrated into government policy assessments, and sometimes they have been forgotten entirely. Proper consideration of these effects will improve the quality of policy making.

6. History of CBA-UK
Report affected several policies in the UK since 1990s (landfill tax, national air quality standards, agri-environmental policies, etc.)
CBA also used in project appraisal with environmental impacts (investment in coastal defences, water quality improvements, inclusion of biodiversity values in forest return calculations, etc.)

7. History of CBA-EU
Used widely in some European countries (e.g. Sweden, Netherlands, Austria) but not so widely in others (e.g. Germany, Italy, Ireland)
Until 1990s many EU environmental directives issued without considering CBA and imposed costs on member states in excess of benefits (e.g. Bathing Waters Directive, Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, Drinking Water Directive)
Recently the EU have considered CBA in several EU policies (e.g. directive on air pollution from municipal waste incinerators, Water Framework Directive)

8. Welfare Economics Background
CBA is firmly based in welfare theory in three ways
In terms of how gains and losses are measured
Consumers: Changes in consumer surplus as a result of changes in quantity and quality of environmental goods
Producers: Changes in producer surplus as a result of changes in prices and quantity and quality of inputs
Makes use of the opportunity cost (scarcity rents) concept to asses costs of using scarce resources

9. Welfare Economics Background
2. What counts as costs and benefits
Welfare economics evaluates alternative resource allocations in terms of their effects on utility
CBA includes any impact on utility whether or not they are reflected in market prices

10. Welfare Economics Background
3. In terms of aggregation and comparison of costs and benefits
Policies and projects have a mixture of gains and losses across individuals
Gains and losses are calculated in money terms, added up and compared to find out the net impact on welfare (net gain or net loss)
Measure of the change in social welfare is based on Kaldor-Hick Criterion: Could gainers compensate the losers and still be better off?
This criterion considers economic efficiency but interpersonal welfare impacts, i.e.distribution of gains and losses are not considered

11. Stages of CBA Stage 1: Definition of policy/project:
The reallocation of resources being proposed
The population of gainers and losers being considered
Stage 2: Identification of policy/project impacts:
Define all impacts that will result from policy/project implementation
Consider additionality (net impacts) and displacement (crowding out)

12. Stages of CBA
Stage 3: Identification of economically relevant impacts:
Environmental impacts of a policy/project are relevant in CBA if either
They change the utility of at least one person in the society
They change the quantity or quality of the output of some positively valued commodity

13. Stages of CBA Stage 4: Physical quantification of relevant impacts:
Determine physical amounts of costs and benefits and when they occur in time
Use environmental impact analysis to estimate the impact of policy/project on the environment
Estimations will be made with uncertainty, calculate the expected value of costs and benefits

14. Stages of CBA Stage 5: Monetary valuation of relevant effects
All physical measures of impacts should be valued in common units to be comparable
Common unit = money
CBA analyst must
Predict prices for value flows extending into the future
Correct market prices where they are distorted
Calculate prices where non exists using environmental valuation methods

15. Stages of CBA Stage 6: Discounting of costs and benefits:
Once costs and benefits are expressed in monetary units they should be converted to present value terms by discounting
PV= Xt[(1+r)-t] where X= cost or benefit; r = discount rate; [(1+r)-t] discount factor; t= time
The higher the value of t the lower the discount factor
The higher the discount rate for a given t the lower the discount factor

16. Stages of CBA Stage 7:Applying the net present value test:
Apply NPV test to choose those policies and projects that are efficient in terms of their use of resources
Where Bt = benefits of the project at period t, Ct = the costs of the project at period t, r = the discount rate, n = the number of years over which the project will operate
NPV is the present value of the project’s/policy’s net benefit stream, obtained by discounting the stream of net benefits produced by the project/policy over its lifetime, back to its value in the chosen base period, usually the present.
If NPV>0 accept policy or project (Based in Kaldor-Hicks Criterion) since it would improve social welfare

17. Stages of CBA Alternatives to NPV
Benefit – Cost ratio (BCR): It is the ratio of the sum of the project’s or policy’s discounted benefits to the sum of its discounted costs. If BCR>1 go ahead with the project/policy

18. Stages of CBA
2. Internal Rate of Return (IRR): Rate of interest which if used as the discount rate for a project/policy, would yield a NPV of zero. It is the discount rate at which it would be just worthwhile doing the project/policy.
So the IRR is the discount rate, r*, at which:
However IRR is a flawed measure of resources allocation because many projects/policies generate multiple IRRs and also because it cannot be used to compare projects/policies.

19. Stages of CBA Optional addition to stage 7
Change weights in the NPV function since income distribution is not equal benefits and costs are not distributed equally across society
Conventional NPV puts equal weights on each individual
Weights can be adjusted by wi=Y*/Yi, where Y* is household income across all groups, Yi is mean income in group i and wi is the weight attached to impacts on i,
This gives higher weight to poorer groups and the NPV becomes NPV= w1B1+w2B2+…..+wn Bn , where Bi is the discounted net benefits to group i
This procedure is rarely used except in developing countries

20. Stages of CBA Stage 8: Sensitivity analysis:
NPV test gives relative efficiency of a project given the data on prices, environmental and economic impacts and discount rate but any of these data might change due to uncertainty
Recalculate NPV when the key parameters change to discover which one(s) of them the NPV is most sensitive to
Once the most sensitive parameter is identified direct forecasting effort to improve best guess and more effort to manage these parameters carefully

21. Limitations of CBA Valuation of environmental goods
Ecosystem complexity
Discounting and discount rate
Institutional capture
Sustainability and CBA

22. Alternatives to CBA Environmental impact assessment (EIA)
Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA)
Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM)
Cost-utility approach
Risk-benefit approaches

23. Recap on CBA
CBA is well-established component of applied welfare economics and of public policy and project analysis
Include environmental impacts in CBA to make more efficient decision making and to explicitly recognise the impact of economy on the environment and the contribution the environment makes to utility and economy
Including the environment in the CBA does not mean the environment will be conserved since CBA makes trade-offs between the environment and other resources.
CBA is concerned with efficiency but generally not compatible with sustainable development wrt inter and intra generational fairness

24. Total Economic Value (TEV)
Environmental goods are public goods, they are not traded in the markets and hence they do not have readily available market prices
The value of environmental good is not only derived from its direct consumption but also from its indirect consumption, as well as non-use.
The broad concept of value is known as the Total Economic Value (TEV)

25. TEV

26. Environmental Valuation Methods
Indirect approaches/Revealed Preference Methods:
Hedonic Pricing Method
Travel Cost Method
Dose -Response Functions
Averting Behaviour
Market Prices
Direct approaches/Stated Preference Methods:
Contingent Valuation Method
Attribute Based Choice Modelling
Choice Experiments
Paired Comparisons
Contingent Ranking
Contingent Rating

27. TEV Example: Tropical Deforestation
Tropical forests are declining in area by 0.8% per year.
TEV of that amount is lost
Forest lost is due to
Population growth
Market failure
Government failure

28. TEV Example: Tropical Deforestation$
MNPBD+SUB
MNPBD
MECL+G
MECL N
A B C D forest loss
MNPBD = the marginal net development benefits from converting the forest to, say, agriculture
MNPBD+SUB = marginal net development benefits including subsidies to convert the land
MECL = marginal external costs borne locally from forest conversion
MECL+G = marginal external costs borne locally and by rest of world from forest conversion
Note that MEC is measured by the total economic value of the forest services that are lost.

29. TEV Example: Tropical Deforestation
There are 4 points of interest.
C = local private optimum, i.e. all externalities are disregarded. There are no subsidies.
D = local private optimum , i.e. all externalities are disregarded and forest conversion is subsidised
B = local social optimum, i.e. local externalities are internalised but global externalities are ignored
A = global social optimum, i.e. all externalities are internalised.
Assuming a global view is taken, the desirable position is A.

30. TEV Example: Tropical Deforestation
CD: Government failure, i.e. the amount of forest land that is lost due to government subsidies to conversion.
BC: Local market failure
AB: Global market failure by
AD: Amount of forest conversion that takes place inefficiently.
OA: Efficient conversion.
Population growth also increases rates of forest loss by increasing the demand for 'developmental' benefits, e.g. land for food.
This causal analysis shows us how to think about policy. To 'save' the forests we need:
to reduce population growth
internalise local externalities
internalise global externalities
remove subsidies to forest conversion

31. TEV Example: Tropical Deforestation
Direct use values: Timber values, fuelwood and charcoal extraction, non-timber forest products (NTFP), biodiversity and genetic information, tourism and recreational values.
Indirect use values: Protection of watersheds and the storage of carbon and sequestration.
Option values: values reflecting a willingness to pay to conserve the option of making use of the forest even though no current use is made of it
Non-use values (also known as existence or passive use values): these values reflect a willingness to pay for the forest in a conserved or sustainable use state, but the willingness to pay is unrelated to current or planned use of the forest.

32. TEV Example: Tropical Deforestation

33. TEV Example: Tropical Deforestation

34. TEV Example: Tropical Deforestation
CBA on forest conservation.
Converting primary forest to any use other than agroforestry or very high value timber extraction fails CBA.
Converting secondary forest to the 'cycle' of logging, crops and ranching could make economic sense but many conversions to slash and burn agriculture would make no economic sense.
Converting secondary forest and open forest to agroforestry appears to make economic sense, assuming that most of the forest's services (including biodiversity) are retained.
Non-market values almost certainly fail to capture the economic value of biodiversity which, apart from the value of genetic information, is omitted from the analysis.
Carbon storage is of the utmost importance to the economic case for forest conservation.

35. Recap on TEV Values of environmental goods are complex because
They are public goods
They do not have market prices
People derive values other than consumption benefits from them
Value of an environmental good is broad
TEV= (Direct use value+Indirect use value+Option Value) +(Bequest Value+Altruistic Value+Bequest Value)
TEV should be estimated using environmental valuation methods
TEV should be included in CBA in order to ensure efficient provision/conservation of environmental goods