Cost-Benefit Analysis: Emerging and Understudied Topics and Applications

A special issue of Administrative Sciences (ISSN 2076-3387).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2020) | Viewed by 8152

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Centre for North American Business Studies (CNABS), Segal Graduate School of Business, Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 1W6, Canada
Interests: policy analysis; public-private partnerships; contracting out; outsourcing; corporatization; cost-benefit analysis; business strategy; government and business

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This is a call for papers on the general topic of cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The issue editor is Aidan Vining (one of the co-authors of Cost-Benefit Analysis: Concepts and Practice, Cambridge University Press, 2018). Potentially all topics in cost–benefit analysis are open for inclusion in the issue. However, the editor is particularly interested in relatively understudied and emerging topics. These topics include the application of cost-benefit analysis to a range of social policy arenas (such as the opioid crisis), theoretical and empirical issues relating to appropriate standing in CBA (for example, the potential appropriate use of global standing or subnational standing), the use of shadow prices that are transferable across multiple policy arenas, and the application of grounded analytic “shortcuts” that facilitate the wider use of cost-benefit by jurisdictions that are budget or expertise-constrained. In other words, we are interested in contributions that assist real government agencies to perform competent analysis that assesses social value, while recognizing that many agencies face budget and analytic constraints.

Prof. Aidan Vining
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 375 KiB  
Article
The Social Cost of Informal Electronic Waste Processing in Southern China
by Anthony Boardman, Jeff Geng and Bruno Lam
Adm. Sci. 2020, 10(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci10010007 - 05 Feb 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3935
Abstract
Large amounts of e-waste are processed “informally” in lower income countries. Such processing releases dangerous pollutants, which increase mortality and reduce cognitive functioning. This paper estimates the social cost of informal e-waste processing in Southern China. This parameter may be “plugged-in” to cost-benefit [...] Read more.
Large amounts of e-waste are processed “informally” in lower income countries. Such processing releases dangerous pollutants, which increase mortality and reduce cognitive functioning. This paper estimates the social cost of informal e-waste processing in Southern China. This parameter may be “plugged-in” to cost-benefit analyses that evaluate the economic efficiency of policies to reduce informal e-waste processing in China or other lower income countries. It may also be used in the estimation of the social benefits (or costs) of new or proposed e-waste processing policies in higher income countries. We estimate that the social cost of informal e-waste processing in Guiyu is about $529 million. This amount is equivalent to about $423 per tonne (in 2018 US dollars) or $3528 per person, which is over half the gross income per capita of the residents of Guiyu. We also perform sensitivity analysis that varies the estimated mortality outcomes, the value of a statistical life and the amount of e-waste processed. Full article
15 pages, 230 KiB  
Article
The Value of High School Graduation in the United States: Per-Person Shadow Price Estimates for Use in Cost–Benefit Analysis
by Aidan R. Vining and David L. Weimer
Adm. Sci. 2019, 9(4), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci9040081 - 17 Oct 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3724
Abstract
One way for jurisdictions with limited analytic resources to increase their capability for doing cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is to use existing shadow prices, or “plug-ins”, for important social impacts. This article contributes to the further development of one important shadow price: the value [...] Read more.
One way for jurisdictions with limited analytic resources to increase their capability for doing cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is to use existing shadow prices, or “plug-ins”, for important social impacts. This article contributes to the further development of one important shadow price: the value of an additional high school graduation in the United States. Specifically, how valuable to a student, government, and the rest of society in aggregate is a high school graduation? The analysis builds on the method developed by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy and presents numerical updates and extensions to their analysis. For the U.S., the estimated net present value (the social value) using a 3 percent real discount rate of this shadow price is approximately $300,000 per each additional graduate. In appropriate circumstances, this value can be “plugged-in” to CBAs of policies that either directly or indirectly seeks to increase the number of students who graduate from high school. Full article
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