Objective: This study aimed to project the societal cost and benefit of an expansion of a water access intervention that promotes lunchtime plain water consumption by placing water dispensers in New York school cafeterias to all schools nationwide. Methods: A decision model was constructed to simulate two events under Markov chain processes – placing water dispensers at lunchtimes in school cafeterias nationwide vs. no action. The incremental cost pertained to water dispenser purchase and maintenance, whereas the incremental benefit was resulted from cases of childhood overweight/obesity prevented and corresponding lifetime direct (medical) and indirect costs saved. Results: Based on the decision model, the estimated incremental cost of the school-based water access intervention is $18 per student, and the corresponding incremental benefit is $192, resulting in a net benefit of $174 per student. Subgroup analysis estimates the net benefit per student to be $199 and $149 among boys and girls, respectively. Nationwide adoption of the intervention would prevent 0.57 million cases of childhood overweight, resulting in a lifetime cost saving totalling $13.1 billion. The estimated total cost saved per dollar spent was $14.5. Conclusion: The New York school-based water access intervention, if adopted nationwide, may have a considerably favourable benefit–cost portfolio.

Projections show that to feed a growing population which is expected to reach 9.1 billion in 2050 would require raising overall food production by some 70 percent by 2050. One of the possible ways to increase agricultural production is through increasing yields by expanding irrigation. This study assesses the potential costs and benefits associated with sustainable groundwater abstraction to provide for irrigation.The feasibility of groundwater abstraction is determined using a combination of three indicators:groundwater recharge, groundwater quality (salinity) and sustainability (no depletion). Global groundwater recharge estimates used, are simulated with the Lund-Potsdam-Jena dynamic global vegetation model with managed lands (LPJmL). The cost of groundwater abstraction is determinedon a spatially explicit scale on global level at a grid resolution of 0.5°. Groundwater abstraction cost is divided into two parts: capital costs and operational costs. The potential benefit of increased water supply for irrigation is given by the water shadow price which is determined by using a Model of Agricultural Production and its Impact on the Environment (MAgPIE). The water shadow price for water is calculated in areas where irrigation water is scarce based on the potential increase in agricultural production through additional water and it reflects the production value of an additional unit of water. The water shadow price is given on a 0.5° grid resolution in US $/m3. Combining the cost of abstraction and the water shadow price, the benefit cost ratio is calculated globally on a spatially explicit scale to determine where investment in groundwater irrigation wouldbe beneficial. Finally, the results are analysed in global, regional and country perspectives. The results show that groundwater abstraction is beneficial for an area of 135 million hectares which is around 8.8% of the total crop area in the year 2005. Europe show the highest potential with an area of ~ 50 million hectares with a majority of the area located in France, Italy, Germany and Poland. Second is North America with an area of ~ 43.5 million hectares located in the Eastern states where the irrigation infrastructure is less developed as compared to the Western states. Sub-Saharan Africa shows a potential of ~ 15.4 million hectares in the Southern and Eastern countries of Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and some parts of South Africa. South Asia despite extensive groundwater extraction shows only a moderate potential of ~ 9 million hectares, mostly located in India whereas China shows almost no potential. This is due to extensive groundwater depleted areas which were removed from the analysis and low water shadow prices which made abstraction not beneficial. Well installation costs play an important role in developing countries in regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where a reduction in costs would lead to an increase in area by more than 30%. Subsidy analyses shows that substantial increase in crop land areas where a benefit cost ratio >1 takes place in India with subsidised energy prices but this effect is found to be negligible in Mexico. This study is, to the author’s knowledge, the first to assess the benefit cost ratio of groundwater abstraction on a global scale by determining spatially explicit abstraction costs. The results show that a great potential for groundwater abstraction exists in all regions despite problems of groundwater depletion due to disparity in distribution and development of groundwater resources. Energy subsidies and cheap well installation techniques are the two factors that could bring down the abstraction costs which are quite important in developing regions where farm incomes are low. Also, groundwater irrigation potential not only exists in arid areas of Africa and South Asia where irrigation is needed but also in humid areas of Europe and North America where groundwater irrigation can play an important role in building resilience to events of drought. However, it is essential to not to follow the path that has led to groundwater depletion in many parts of the world and develop this potential in a sustainable way through groundwater use regulations, policies and efficient technologies.

Yes

No / The paper explores some of the political assumptions implicit in the use of social cost-benefit analysis, and the role of economic planners using this analysis. It is argued that the recent emphasis on income distribution in project planning techniques rests on questionable assumptions about the nature and intentions of governments. These techniques can be thought of as attempts to redistribute income ‘through the back door’. Some possible justification for the use of income distribution weights in project planning is given, but it is concluded that they are very much second best to direct macro-economic policies and popular participation in planning.

No / This paper examines the way in which the distributional impact of projects has been treated in the cost±bene®t analysis literature. It is suggested that excessive emphasis has been given to the estimation of distribution weights in the context of single ®gure measures of project worth and that more attention should be paid to estimation of the distribution e ects themselves. If projects really are to have some impact on poverty it is important that some attempt is made to measure what that impact is. Such an attempt requires both systematic measurement of direct income e ects as well as the possibility of measuring indirect e ects where these are expected to be important. An approach is suggested in which direct measurement of income e ects can be adjusted using shadow price estimates to determine indirect income e ects. The approach is illustrated with the example of a district heating project in the Republic of Latvia.

Yes / The government increased the funding for regional development agencies to £2.3 billion in 2007/8, yet hard evidence on the effectiveness of the spending is difficult to find. Techniques for valuing benefits in difficult areas have existed for many years. They range from the hedonic methods and contingent valuation studies of environmental economists to the estimates of shadow wage rates used by development economists to take account of the economic value of additional employment. The latter have been used for years in some of the poorest developing countries in the world, as well as some countries in the European Union. Meanwhile some attempts to capture the indirect benefits of regeneration spending have surfaced through the United States with the ‘Social Return on Investment’ and Local Multiplier 3, yet the proponents of these approaches do not seem to have come across the abundant literature on the use of shadow pricing in the context of developing countries. This article attempts to explore the extent to which practices used and lessons learned in the economic analysis of environmental impacts and of investments in developing countries can inform the evaluation and appraisal of regeneration projects in the United Kingdom.

The use of contingent valuation (CV) methods to estimate benefits has become increasingly common in project analysis. Ever since the NOAA Blue Ribbon Panel Report in 1993 (NOAA, 1993) recommended the use of the referendum form of CV, it seems to have become the method of choice in practical settings. Referendum-type questions are thought to be easier to answer than the open-ended variety. But there is a downside: econometric techniques must be applied to the referendum data in order to infer the mean or median willingness to pay (WTP) of the sample and, thus, of the population of potential beneficiaries. This is not, however, just a technical point. Its implications are demonstrated with data obtained from a referendum CV study done for a proposed sewer and wastewater treatment project designed to improve water quality in the Tietê River flowing through the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The results show that: A factor of 4 separates lowest from highest central tendency estimates of WTP, ignoring one implausible outlier that is 14 times larger than the largest of the other figures. This variation is ample enough to make a difference in the cost-benefit analysis results for the project under conservative assumptions. Analysts that use referendum CV data must be sensitive to the problems they buy into, and decide how to deal with the resulting benefits uncertainty in their project analysis. If the principal use of CV survey data is to produce a mean or median estimate of WTP for Cost-Benefit analysis rather than to test for the factors influencing referendum choice responses and, by implication, WTP, nonparametric approaches have the advantage of simplicity over parametric approaches. / Master of Arts

Yes / This paper considers recent field evidence to analyse what online public services citizens need, explores potential citizen subsidy of these specific services and investigates where resources should be invested in terms of media accessibility. We explore these from a citizen-centric affordability perspective within three ‘exemplar’ developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank and United Nations in particular promote initiatives under the ‘Information and Communication Technologies for Development’ (ICT4D) to stress the relevance of e-Government as a way to ensure development and reduce poverty. We adopt a ‘Contingency Value’ method to conceptually outline reported citizens willingness to pay for digital public services. Hence, our focus is mainly upon an empirical investigation through extensive fieldwork in the context of sub-Sahara Africa. A substantive survey was conducted in the respective cities of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Lagos (Nigeria) and Johannesburg (South Africa). The sample of citizens was drawn from each respective Chamber of Commerce database for Ethiopia and South Africa, and for Nigeria a purchased database of businesses, based on stratified random sampling. These were randomly identified from both sectors ensuring all locations were covered with a total sample size of 1,297 respondents. It was found, in particular, that citizens were willing to pay to be able to access digital public services and that amounts of fees they were willing to pay varied depending on what services they wish to access and what devices they use (PCs or mobile phones). / European Investment Bank under the EIB-Universities Research Action Programme

Yes / Purpose – The purpose of this article is to argue that a common understanding of the terms social value, social cost benefit, social return on investment etc. would be useful for those seeking to engage with the topic in the fields of health, wellbeing and early family intervention Design/method/approach – The article considers a commissioned study delivered by the authors which reviews the literature pertinent to this field. Findings- The authors suggest that there is considerable confusion with regard to the meaning of terms which are used almost interchangeably in the fields of health, wellbeing and early family intervention. Originality/value – The authors put forward a model to provide consistency of meaning across three levels of interventions.

This Master's Thesis aims to apply methods of investmets to project of very specialized sports facilities. It uses Cost Benefit Analysis, Criteria Indicators, Risk Analysis to assess costs and benefits of sports infrastructure project. The theoretical part deals with a sport infrastructure definition, methodological part provides theoretical basis of methods used in next practical part. This is the previously mentioned Cost Benefit Analysis, Risk Analysis, SWOT Analysis and Marketing Strategy. To define real situation, practical part contains also statistic data regarding sports facilities in the Czech Republic and government strategy documents, which serves as basis of sociological part of the analysis.