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Course name: Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA)
ECTS Credits: 5
Level: PhD
Lecturers: Specialists covering the topics mentioned below.
Objective: To learn about the state of the art in Cost-Benefit Analysis for various sectors.
Contents: There is an increasing need for evaluation and ranking of projects within constrained public budgets. CBA is one of the methods that are extensively used in economic impact assessment of projects in the public sector. Originally, it was developed and applied within transportation, but has gained increasing attention also within environmental assessment, health care and cultural economics. The course covers fundamental theoretical and empirical issues, and applies these to actual case studies.
Topics to be covered:
- Introduction (1 hour lecture).
- The theoretical and conceptual platform. Concepts like consumer and producer surplus measures, efficiency and equity, opportunity costs, imperfect markets, external effects, network effects, public goods, cost-efficiency analysis, constraints from rights and politics. Cost-Benefit Analysis and decision-making. Critics of CBA (8 hours lecturing).
- The discount rate, systematic and unsystematic risks, real option values. (3-4 hours lecturing)
- Non-market valuation. Strengths and weaknesses of methods like Contingent Valuation and Stated Preferences with respect to applications like:
- The Value of Time
- Environment goods
- Health care
- Traffic Safety
(6 hours lecturing)
- Case studies (12 hours lecturing):
- Petroleum and energy.
- Transport.
- Health care.
- Research and development.
The course is aimed at Norwegian and foreign PhD students, researchers and consultants, and people occupied with Economics in the public sector.
Evaluation: Obligatory participation and a paper handed in after the course.
Grades: Pass/fail |
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