Principles of Cost Benefit Analysis for Developing Countries

In this distinctive 1996 book the authors combine an introduction to welfare economics, a discussion of project appraisal principles in developing countries and a survey of the cost-benefit problems raised by externalities, risk and the environment. There are references throughout to contemporary research work in developing economics, and a number of important development policy issues, such as trade reform, commodity price stabilization and the rate of exploitation of natural resources, are considered within a unified cost-benefit framework. A particular feature is the use at an elementary level of general equilibrium models which extend the analysis beyond the limits of the well known partial measures of producer and consumer surplus. The book is primarily intended for courses in development economics, but will also be of interest to students of public policy, both in teaching and administration.Part I. Introduction to Welfare Economics: 1. Measuring changes in economic welfare: consumer and producer surplus; 2. Consumers and producers: some basic theory; 3. Welfare change in general equilibrium; 4. Equity and efficiency; Part II. Project and Policy Appraisal in Developing Countries: 5. Project appraisal: an overview; 6. Shadow prices for traded and non-traded commodities in an open economy; 7. Trade policy, exchange rates and structural adjustment; 8. Labour markets in developing countries; 9. The social value of labour; 10. Intertemporal costs and benefits (1): a market-based approach; 11. Intertemporal costs and benefits (2): a social planning approach; Part III. Missing Markets: 12. Externalities and public goods; 13. Risk and the measurement of welfare change; 14. Natural resources and the environment; Retrospect.