Rural development by means of providing uninterruptible power supply has become a priority among developing countries. Nigeria especially has on its top agenda the mandate to provide clean and cost-effective means of energy to the rural communities, hardest hit by wave of incessant outages of electricity supply. Renewable Energy (RE), a clean form of energy that can be derived from natural sources is widely available throughout Nigeria but is not harnessed. In this dissertation a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) framework is proposed for renewable energy towards rural community development in Nigeria as indicated in the 18-point recommendations of Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN). Moreover, a cost-benefit analysis tool is formulated and developed from the CBA framework in order to analyze comparatively the costs and intangible benefits of renewable energy projects for rural application. A case study demonstrating the working methodology of the proposed framework is presented in order to establish the cost-benefit components by assessing the comparative cost-benefit analysis of RE at a rural site of Nigeria. Erinjiyan Ekiti rural area is located for CBA assessment with three RE resources (solar, wind and small hydro) selected for consideration. Through the application of Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), the respondents' willingness to pay for RE supply is obtained and RE benefits in monetary terms computed. Using three economic decision criteria namely: Net Present Value (NPV), Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR); the three RE resources are ranked according to their economic viability. The result of the analysis provides useful insight to investors and decision makers into how RE projects in rural community should be conducted. Foremost, it is revealed that all three RE options will be economically viable if implemented, though adequate caution must be taken when making a decision. Based on the CBA assessment, the Small-Hydro Power (SHP) option is ranked as the most viable option. However, this is swiftly negated if RE social impact, such as the spiritual belief of the rural dwellers, who rely on the only potential river as a medium of communication with their ancestors, are taken into consideration. Furthermore, a sensitivity assessment of the three RE options revealed that only solar photovoltaic (PV) option is marginally viable, thus turns negative upon an assumed increase in discount rate of only 17%. Herein, the proposed CBA framework provides a useful insight into an efficient method of appraising RE projects in rural communities. A CBA simulation tool is formulated and adapted from the CBA framework to enable quicker, reliable and automated means of assessing RE projects with a view to making wise investment decision. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol inst., 2003. / Härtill 6 uppsatser. ISBN tilldelat efter tryckningen.

Public expenditures are a very important part of public finance. These expenditures are one kind of state interventions. In long term we can observe an increasing trend of public expenditures. Very often, these expenditures are spended inefficiently and uneconomically. To be spend efficiently and economically, it should be obvious to evaluate their effectiveness. But the current situation of this problem in the Czech Republic is not ideal and usually effectiveness is not evaluated. Absence of this evaluation is a big problem of system of public finance. This thesis solves the problem of evaluating effectiveness of the public expenditure programs on the real program, called "Flood prevention". This program is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and itś main aim is to increase the protection against flood in the Czech Republic. The first phase of this program was realized in the years 2002-2007 (the second phase has been realized in the years 2007-2012). This thesis is devoted to the first phase and the main aim is to evaluate this program with an available method. One hypothesis was set: That the program "Flood prevention" was effective and all the targets were realized. In this work I tried to find, if this hypothesis is true or fals.

Public projects are still subject of heated discussions, especially with the respect to their efficiency that is usually not sufficient enough. In spite of existence of many ways how to increase their efficiency, it is readily possible to identify one fundamental criterion which is high-quality information for decision-making. It is important to deliver high-quality information to those who make decision in order to reduce wastage of the public funds on not efficient public projects. All substantial information about effects incurred by project's realization can be offered by the Cost-Benefit analysis. The Cost Benefit analysis should be prepared for each significant public project to prevent from realization of ineffective ones. It is essential to process each Cost-Benefit analysis in required qualitative level for making right decision. Purpose of this thesis is appraisal of usefulness of the Cost-Benefit analysis for specific purposes of the public sector and assessment of indexes used in the Analysis. In the thesis will be introduced public projects, related public sector and evaluation of public projects. Subsequently, the Cost-Benefit analysis itself will be presented as well as steps for processing high-quality Cost-Benefit analysis. The emphasis will be focused at discount rate and its determination, since I consider it as the critical issue of the Cost-Benefit analysis. A practical example of the Cost-Benefit analysis will be presented at the end of this thesis.

The aim of this thesis is the evaluation of the effectiveness of the investment project in the public sector. Evaluation is based on C&B analysis, which is primarily intended for evaluating investments and interventions in the public sphere. Its aim is to give all the financial impacts of the project, whether positive or negative in order to evaluate the benefits arising from the implementation in relation to financial investments made in the project. The criterion for the success of these projects is not profit, but social benefits arising from them. The higher these benefits are, the greater is the efficiency of investment. The thesis is divided into three parts (excluding introduction and conclusion). The first section explains the important concepts that readers bring to the evaluation of investment efficiency in the public sector. In the second part contains the theoretical basis from which comes out the practical part. In her is then applied method of CBA and determined the final results.

This diploma thesis compares the profits and costs of the prohibition adopted in the Czech Republic during September 2012. The prohibition that lasted two weeks was a reaction of the Czech government on series of intoxication due to the proof of toxic methanol. The thesis detects, based on the comparison of the value of saved lives and costs that the prohibition cause, the effectivity of the government interference on the market oriented economy. The profits of the prohibition are defined as a value of saved lives of people, who would die because of the intoxication if the prohibition would not be adopted. The value of the human life is defined by DALY (disability-adjusted life years), the willingness to pay for prolongation of own life and the amount of potential juridical refunds. The costs of the prohibition are formulated as a value of unsold goods and services. Diploma thesis considers also impact of prohibition on tax collection. We can state that, based on the cost-benefit analysis, the adopted prohibition was economically effective.

The topic of this dissertation thesis is collection, analysis and evaluation of information about investment decisions making within public administration bodies. The investment decision making is examined in relation to allocation of public funds on investment activities and projects. The main goal of this thesis is to analyze and evaluate the current status of the investment decision making within the public sector. Subsequently the goal is to offer new or updated knowledge related to these issues, and bring recommendations to improve the investment decision making of public administration bodies. At first, there are described current knowledge in the field of investment decision making. This is followed by an analysis of assessment methods used for evaluation and selection of investment projects. The work is completed by recommendations for investment decisions making in the form of a normative model. The model should increase benefits of public investment expenses for society. There are used data obtained through a questionnaire survey of 430 subsidized firms, 169 state organizational units and state funds and 130 cities, boroughs and counties. Another important source of information was secondary data of selected ministries and agencies, legislation and literature.

This thesis is focused on the revitalization of brownfield implemented through public producrement and selected in the city of Brno. The theoretical part includes basic concepts that explain the issue of brownfields, public procurement, and more specifically the assessment of their economic efficiency. The practical part is focused on the specific case of brownfield revitalization through public procurement including its economic assessment. The use of econimic analysis, namely Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), will be utilized to assess the effectiveness, and socio-economic impacts will also be determined. The purpose of the second part is to determine whether the revitalization thus made more economically advantageous for the city of Brno.

This research investigates the environment and development issues of three stakeholders at multiple scales—global, national, regional, and local. Through the analysis of financial, social, and environmental metrics, the potential benefits and risks of each case study are estimated, and their implications are considered. In the first case study, the relationship of manufacturing and environmental performance is investigated. Over 700 facilities of a global manufacturer that produce 11 products on six continents were investigated to understand global variations and determinants of environmental performance. Water, energy, carbon dioxide emissions, and production data from these facilities were analyzed to assess environmental performance; the relationship of production composition at the individual firm and environmental performance were investigated. Location-independent environmental performance metrics were combined to provide both global and local measures of environmental performance. These models were extended to estimate future water use, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions considering potential demand shifts. Natural resource depletion risks were investigated, and mitigation strategies related to vulnerabilities and exposure were discussed. The case study demonstrated how data from multiple facilities can be used to characterize the variability amongst facilities and to preview how changes in production may affect overall corporate environmental metrics. The developed framework adds a new approach to account for environmental performance and degradation as well as assess potential risk in locations where climate change may affect the availability of production resources (i.e., water and energy) and thus, is a tool for understanding risk and maintaining competitive advantage. The second case study was designed to address the issue of delivering affordable and sustainable energy. Energy pricing was evaluated by modeling individual energy consumption behaviors. This analysis simulated a heterogeneous set of residential households in both the urban and rural environments in order to understand demand shifts in the residential energy end-use sector due to the effects of electricity pricing. An agent-based model (ABM) was created to investigate the interactions of energy policy and individual household behaviors; the model incorporated empirical data on beliefs and perceptions of energy. The environmental beliefs, energy pricing grievances, and social networking dynamics were integrated into the ABM model structure. This model projected the aggregate residential sector electricity demand throughout the 30-year time period as well as distinguished the respective number of households who only use electricity, that use solely rely on indigenous fuels, and that incorporate both indigenous fuels and electricity. The model is one of the first characterizations of household electricity demand response and fuel transitions related to energy pricing at the individual household level, and is one of the first approaches to evaluating consumer grievance and rioting response to energy service delivery. The model framework is suggested as an innovative tool for energy policy analysis and can easily be revised to assist policy makers in other developing countries. In the final case study, a framework was developed for a broad cost-benefit and greenhouse gas evaluation of transit systems and their associated developments. A case study was developed of the Atlanta BeltLine. The net greenhouse gas emissions from the BeltLine light rail system will depend on the energy efficiency of the streetcars themselves, the greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity used to power the streetcars, the extent to which people use the BeltLine instead of driving personal vehicles, and the efficiency of their vehicles. The effects of ridership, residential densities, and housing mix on environmental performance were investigated and were used to estimate the overall system efficacy. The range of the net present value of this system was estimated considering health, congestion, per capita greenhouse gas emissions, and societal costs and benefits on a time-varying scale as well as considering the construction and operational costs. The 95% confidence interval was found with a range bounded by a potential loss of $860 million and a benefit of $2.3 billion; the mean net present value was $610 million. It is estimated that the system will generate a savings of $220 per ton of emitted CO2 with a 95% confidence interval bounded by a potential social cost of $86 cost per ton CO2 and a savings of $595 per ton CO2.

Fires within the built environment are a fact of life and through design and the application of the building regulations and design codes, the risk of fire to the building occupants can be minimised. However, the building regulations within the UK do not deal with property protection and focus solely on the safety of the building occupants. This research details the statistical analysis of the UK Fire and Rescue Service and the Fire Protection Association's fire incident databases to create a loss model framework, allowing the designers of a buildings fire safety systems to conduct a cost benefit analysis on installing additional fire protection solely for property protection. It finds that statistical analysis of the FDR 1 incident database highlights the data collection methods of the Fire and Rescue Service ideally need to be changed to allow further risk analysis on the UK building stock, that the statistics highlight that the incidents affecting the size of a fire are the time from ignition to discovery and the presence of dangerous materials, that sprinkler activations may not be as high as made out by sprinkler groups and that the activation of an alarm system gives a smaller size fire. The original contribution to knowledge that this PhD makes is to analyse the FDR 1 database to try and create a loss model, using data from both the Fire Protection Association and the Fire and Rescue Service.