scholarly journals Findings from the LHC/HL-LHC Programme

Author(s):  
Andrea Bastianin

Abstract This note summarizes the results of a social Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA) of the High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The social CBA methodology is well-suited to assess social costs and benefits of the HL-LHC up to 2038. The analysis shows that the ratio between incremental benefits and incremental costs of the HL-LHC with respect to operating the LHC under normal consolidation (i.e. without high-luminosity upgrade) is slightly over 1.7, meaning that each Swiss Franc invested in the HL-LHC upgrade project pays back approximately 1.7 CHF in societal benefits. The rest of the note is organized as follows. We first discuss the merits of CBA; next, we present the methodology and discuss the results.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ai-Jiun Chua ◽  
Weng-Wai Choong

There is increasing concern on how public projects are being evaluated especially for public projects that bring impacts towards the economic, social and environmental of the nation in the long-term, for example infrastructural, environmental protection, energy efficiency, healthcare, education expenditures and others. Thus, the federal government and state government recommend project assessors to adopt cost-benefit analysis for major infrastructure and social investment as well as for regulatory initiatives. Cost benefit analysis has been widely used as a tool to enable stakeholders to make a better decision for projects by systematically comparing the social costs and benefits with the emphasis on valuing them in monetary term. One of the most significant parameters for cost benefit analysis is the social discount rate. It is a rate that used to convert the future social costs and benefits into present value. However, there is a long-time debate on how to construct appropriate social discount rate. Literature reveals that there are various popular approaches to construct social discount rate, such as Social Time Preference (STP) approach, Social Opportunity Cost of Capital (SOC), and Shadow Price of Capital (SPC). The selection of approaches is a significant process to construct an appropriate social discount rate for the project. In this paper, author examines theoretical for each approach and procedures to construct social discount rate. A framework will be developed to guide the assessor in selecting the approaches to construct social discount rate. This paper intends to review social discount rate construction approaches and the pros and cons of each approach. The paper would provide insight to assessor in selecting the approach in construction social discount rate. 


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (01) ◽  
pp. 1450001 ◽  
Author(s):  
LORIS ALEXANDER MANNI ◽  
HENS A. C. RUNHAAR

The efficient management of waste is important in order to reduce negative externalities, such as air, water and soil pollution. A major challenge is the increasing amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced by households. Municipalities around the world have implemented pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) schemes in order to incentivise the reduction of MSW. Although the literature has shown that these financial incentive schemes are often effective, they are criticised in practice for raising costs to society. This paper aims to assess whether or not this criticism is correct. A social cost-benefit analysis was conducted in order to take into account economic, environmental and social costs and benefits. Our results show that PAYT schemes reduce overall social costs and therefore positively contribute to the social efficiency of a municipality. The above criticism is not supported by empirical evidence, but in practice forms a barrier to the implementation of PAYT schemes. In order to remove this barrier, we encourage the readers of JEAPM to disseminate our findings to a wider audience.


2021 ◽  
pp. 137-154
Author(s):  
Talia Fisher

Utility considerations have been central to legal factfinding, at least since the days of Jeremy Bentham, the founding father of utilitarianism and a prominent evidence law theorist. A direct line can be drawn from Bentham’s “principle of utility” to cost-benefit analysis (CBA) so it would seem only natural that the realms of evidence law and judicial factfinding would harbor this type of reasoning. However, when legal scholarship began to incorporate economic reasoning and to address issues from a CBA perspective, evidence law and the practice of judicial factfinding remained very much out of the picture. The object of this chapter is to highlight the prospects for integrating CBA into contemporary evidentiary policy and institutions, and to draw the general contours of the evolving scholarship in these fields of research. It describes and analyzes two economically driven models of evidence and proof: the cost-minimization model, geared toward minimization of the cost of errors and the cost of accuracy as a total sum, and the primary behavior model aiming to incentivize socially optimal behavior and interactions. This analysis identifies the models’ difficulties, engendered, for the most part, by the misalignment between the private and the social costs and benefits of adjudication, and addresses the models’ relationship to the existing evidentiary rules and institutions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 808-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
David John Evans ◽  
Erhun Kula ◽  
Yoko Nagase

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate survey-based values of the elasticity of marginal social valuation of income, an important welfare parameter in cost-benefit analysis. Design/methodology/approach – A model relating equity welfare weights to income is developed, and iso-elasticity of marginal valuation of income is tested using survey data obtained from a sample of Turkish politicians who are instrumental in policy making. Findings – Based on the survey feedback, formal statistical testing indicates that Turkish politicians, regardless of party allegiance, reveal preferences consistent with an iso-elastic marginal social valuation of income. The estimated value of the elasticity measure is close to unity for each of the political parties. Originality/value – The originality of the paper is in terms of the survey method used to obtain from Turkish politicians estimates of the marginal social valuation of income. This welfare parameter is needed in the calculation of both social discount rates and welfare weights. The paper will be of interest to academics in the field of welfare economics as well as to practitioners involved in the appraisal of social projects and policies.


Author(s):  
Sherry D. Ryan ◽  
Michael S. Gates

Researchers have attempted to augment the traditional cost/benefit analysis model used in the IT decision process. However, frequently social subsystem issues are inadequately considered. Survey data, collected from a U.S. sample of 200 executives, provides an empirical assessment of how these issues compare with other IT decision criteria given differing decision types. The social subsystem issues considered most important by decision makers are also identified and the manner by which they consider these issues is investigated.


2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Santhakumar ◽  
Achin Chakraborty

This paper presents the operational procedures involved in incorporating the environmental costs in the cost–benefit analysis of a hydro-electric project. The proposed project, if implemented, would result in the loss of 2,800 hectares of tropical forests and dislocation of two settlements of about 200 families who are currently dependent on the forests for their livelihood. The forests are mainly used for extracting reed – a material used both by traditional artisans and the paper-pulp industry. The potential environmental costs and benefits of the project are identified and approximate estimates of some of these costs are made for items such as carbon sequestration, bio-diversity, and so on, based on similar estimates made elsewhere. These estimated environmental costs are incorporated into the analysis, and the hypothetical estimate of the non-use value, which would make the project's net benefit zero, is estimated under different discount rates. The analysis brings into sharp focus some crucial factors that have a direct bearing on the social trade-off involved in the project choice.


Author(s):  
Matthew D. Adler

This chapter describes and compares the two most important policy-analysis methodologies in economics: cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and the social-welfare-function (SWF) framework. Both approaches are consequentialist and welfarist; both are typically combined with a preference-based view of well-being. Despite these similarities, the two methodologies differ in significant ways. CBA translates well-being impacts into monetary equivalents, and ranks outcomes according to the sum total of monetary equivalents. By contrast, the SWF framework relies upon an interpersonally comparable measure of well-being. Each possible outcome is mapped onto a list (vector) of these well-being numbers, one for each person in the population; the ranking of outcomes, then, is driven by some rule (the SWF) for ranking these well-being vectors. The utilitarian SWF and the prioritarian family of SWFs (each corresponding to well-developed positions in moral philosophy) are especially plausible. The case for using CBA rather than one of these SWFs is weak—or so the chapter argues.


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