The past decade has seen increased attention to cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis in education as administrators are being asked to accomplish more with the same or even fewer resources, philanthropists are keen to calculate their "return on investment" in social programs, and the general public is increasingly scrutinizing how resources are allocated to schools and colleges. Economic Evaluation in Education: Cost-Effectiveness and Benefit-Cost Analysis (titled Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications in its previous editions) is the only full-length book to provide readers with the step-by-step methods they need to plan and implement a benefit-cost analysis in education. Authors Henry M. Levin, Patrick J. McEwan, Clive Belfield, Alyshia Brooks Bowden, and Robert Shand examine a range of issues, including how to identify, measure, and distribute costs; how to measure effectiveness, utility, and benefits; and how to incorporate cost evaluations into the decision-making process. The updates to the Third Edition reflect the considerable methodological development in the evaluation literature, and the greater empiricism practiced by education researchers, to help readers learn to apply more advanced methods to their own analyses.

Teaching Benefit-Cost Analysis provides detail and inspiration that extends and clarifies standard textbooks. Each short, self-contained module includes guidance to additional sources while many also provide class exercises. Classes for advanced undergraduates, practitioners, or Masters students could especially apply these tools of the trade.

Throughout the text of this introduction to benefit cost analysis, emphasis is on applications, and a worked case study is progressively undertaken as an illustration of the analytical principles in operation. The first part covers basic theory and procedures. Part Two advances to material on internationally tradeable goods and projects that affect market prices, and part Three introduces special topics such as the treatment of risk and uncertainty, income distributional effects and the valuation of non-marketed goods. Instructors' resource web site: http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/bca

This thoroughly updated second edition incorporates key ideas and discussions on issues such as wider economic impacts, the treatment of risk, and the importance of institutional arrangements in ensuring the correct use of technique. Ginés de Rus considers whether public decisions, such as investing in high-speed rail links, privatizing a public enterprise or protecting a natural area, may improve social welfare.

Benefit cost analysis (BCA) is the best technique for analyzing proposed or previously enacted projects to determine whether undertaking them is in the public interest, or for choosing between two or more mutually exclusive projects. An introduction to BCA for students as well as practitioners, this accessible volume describes the underlying economic theory and legal and philosophical foundations of BCA. BCA provides an objective framework around which discussion, correction and amendment can take place. Stated simply, it is the calculation of values for all the inputs and outputs from a project and then the subtraction of the first from the second. The authors goal here is to take the mystery out of the process. They discuss practical issues of market-based valuation and aggregation, non-market valuation, practical applications of general equilibrium models, issues in discounting, and the impacts of risk and uncertainty in BCA. They also provide a list of resources and case studies looking at ethanol and the use of cellular phones by drivers. Straightforward in style and cutting-edge in coverage, this volume will be highly usable both as a text and a reference. Advanced undergraduates and masters students in public policy, public administration, economics and health care administration programs will find this a valuable resource. It will also be of great use to agencies that perform benefit cost analyses.

For the past 25 years, governmental decision-makers have employed the economic approach of benefit-cost analysis for resource allocation decisions. Environmental Economics describes, in a non-technical, readily understandable way, why the actual practice of benefit-cost analysis in environmental settings is heavily biased against the environment. The book provides environmentalists with the tools necessary to show policy-makers that pursuing many policies with apparent costs greater than benefits are, in fact, welfare enhancing.

Cost-benefit Analysis of Environmental Health Interventions clearly articulates the core principles and fundamental methodologies underpinning the modern economic assessment of environmental intervention on human health. Taking a practical approach, the book provides a step-by-step approach to assigning a monetary value to the health benefits and disbenefits arising from interventions, using environmental information and epidemiological evidence. It summarizes environmental risk factors and explores how to interpret and understand epidemiological data using concentration-response, exposure-response or dose-response techniques, explaining the environmental interventions available for each environmental risk factor. It evaluates in detail two of the most challenging stages of Cost-Benefit Analysis in 'discounting' and 'accounting for uncertainty'. Further chapters describe how to analyze and critique results, evaluate potential alternatives to Cost-Benefit Analysis, and on how to engage with stakeholders to communicate the results of Cost-Benefit Analysis. The book includes a detailed case study how to conduct a Cost-Benefit Analysis. It is supported by an online website providing solution files and detailing the design of models using Excel. - Provides a clear understanding of the core theory of cost-benefit analysis in environmental health interventions - Provides practical guidance using real-world case studies to motivate and expand understanding - Describes the challenging 'discounting' and 'accounting for uncertainty' problems at chapter length - Supported by a practical case study, online solution files, and a practical guide to the design of CBA models using Excel