Principles of cost-benefit analysis for developing countries

Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of economic models and tables -- Preface -- Part I: Introduction to welfare economics -- 1 Measuring changes in economic welfare: consumer and producer surplus -- 1.1 Consumer and producer surplus -- 1.2 A cost-benefit approach to policy analysis: some examples -- The social value of an innovation -- Market distortions -- Public goods -- Divergence between social and private cost -- Commodity price stabilisation -- 1.3 Calculating the surpluses -- 1.4 Outstanding problems -- Suggestions for further reading -- 2 Consumers and producers: some basic theory -- 2.1 Consumer optimisation and demand functions -- 2.2 The measurement of consumer surplus -- 2.3 The firm in the long run -- 2.4 The short run and the meaning of producer surplus -- 2.5 Conclusion -- Appendix: properties of the expenditure function -- Suggestions for further reading -- 3 Welfare change in general equilibrium -- 3.1 Adding consumer surpluses -- 3.2 A model of general equilibrium -- 3.3 Measures of welfare change in general equilibrium -- 3.4 Welfare change with perfectly competitive markets -- 3.5 Welfare change in a tax-distorted economy -- 3.6 Partial and general equilibrium measures -- Appendix: conditions for path independence when adding consumer surpluses -- Suggestions for further reading -- 4 Equity and efficiency -- 4.1 Pareto efficiency and Pareto improvements -- 4.2 Relative utilities and social welfare -- 4.3 The Bergson-Samuelson social welfare function -- 4.4 Social welfare functions and individual choice -- 4.5 Equity and efficiency: a trade-off? -- 4.6 Conclusion -- Suggestions for further reading -- Part II: Project and policy appraisal in developing countries -- 5 Project appraisal: an overview -- 5.1 Project appraisal in developing countries -- 5.2 Welfare objectives

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