scholarly journals The Merits of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence from the Kalamazoo Promise

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 400-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Bartik ◽  
Brad Hershbein ◽  
Marta Lachowska
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Rate Of Return ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Kalamazoo Promise ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Benefits And Costs

As higher education costs rise, many communities have begun to adopt their own financial aid strategy: place-based scholarships for students graduating from the local school district. In this paper, we examine the benefits and costs of the Kalamazoo Promise, one of the more universal and more generous place-based scholarships. Building upon estimates of the program’s heterogeneous effects on degree attainment, scholarship cost data, and projections of future earnings by education, we examine the Promise’s benefit-cost ratios for students differentiated by income, race, and gender. Although the average rate of return of the program is 11%, rates of return vary greatly by group. The Promise has high returns for both low-income and non-low-income groups, for non-Whites, and for women, while benefit assumptions matter more for Whites and men. Our results show that universal scholarships can reach many students and have a high rate of return, particularly for places with a high percentage of African American students. They also highlight the importance of disaggregating benefits and costs by subgroup when performing benefit-cost analysis when the treatment is heterogeneous.

Measures of Project Worth

2018 ◽  
pp. 137-155
Keyword(s):  
Net Present Value ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Capital Budgeting ◽  
Rate Of Return ◽  
Present Value ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Fixed Assets ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Production Period

Investments usually involve the procurement of assets for which using marginal analysis may not be adequate in evaluating their worth to an economic activity in an enterprise. Furthermore, all the costs involved in the purchase of fixed assets are not ordinarily charged to the account of a production period. It is against his background that this chapter focuses on the concept of measures of project worth with a view to enabling farmers to obviate related problems in capital budgeting, non-discounted measures of project worth (pay-back period, average rate of return), discounted measures of project worth, benefit-cost analysis, net present value, decision criteria in using the net present value, internal rate of return, calculating the IRR, and interpreting the IRR. Discussions were based on a review of related and relevant literature. Conclusions and recommendations are made based on the discussions.

Benefits and Costs of a Targeted Intervention Program for Youthful Offenders: The YouthBuild USA Offender Project

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Cohen ◽  
Alex R. Piquero
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Intervention Program ◽  
Cost Ratio ◽  
Targeted Intervention ◽  
Criminal Offenders ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Benefit Cost Ratio ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Benefits And Costs

This paper reports on a benefit-cost analysis of a targeted intervention program, the YouthBuild USA Offender Project (YBOP), aimed at low-income, criminal offenders who are 16–24 years old. Using data on 388 participants, we find: (1) evidence of reduced recidivism and improved educational outcomes that exceed our expectations based on similar cohorts and (2) evidence consistent with a positive benefit-cost ratio, indicating that every dollar spent on the YBOP is estimated to produce a return on investment between $7.20 and $21.60, with benefits to society ranging between $174,000 and $281,000 per participant at a cost to society between $13,000 and $24,000.

Accounting for the Distribution of Benefits and Costs in Benefit–Cost Analysis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
James K. Hammitt
Keyword(s):  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Policy Choice ◽  
Alternative Evaluation ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Transfer Programs ◽  
Net Benefits ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Abstract Benefit–cost analysis (BCA) is often viewed as measuring the efficiency of a policy independent of the distribution of its consequences. The role of distributional effects on policy choice is disputed; either: (a) the policy that maximizes net benefits should be selected and distributional concerns should be addressed through other measures, such as tax and transfer programs or (b) BCA should be supplemented with distributional analysis and decision-makers should weigh efficiency and distribution in policy choice. The separation of efficiency and distribution is misleading. The measure of efficiency depends on the numéraire chosen for the analysis, whether monetary values or some other good (unless individuals have the same rates of substitution between them). The choice of numéraire is not neutral; it can affect the ranking of policies by calculated net benefits. Alternative evaluation methods, such as BCA using a different numéraire, weighted BCA, or a social welfare function (SWF), may better integrate concerns about distribution and efficiency. The most appropriate numéraire, distributional weights, or SWFs cannot be measured or statistically estimated; it is a normative choice.

scholarly journals A retrospective assessment of the costs of EPA’s 1998 Locomotive Emission Standards

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Kopits
Keyword(s):  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Total Cost ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Retrospective Assessment ◽  
Emission Standards ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Data Limitations ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Abstract:While the need to update EPA benefit-cost analysis to reflect the most recent science is broadly acknowledged, little work has been done examining how well ex ante BCAs estimate the actual benefits and costs of regulations. This paper adds to the existing literature on ex post cost analyses by examining EPA’s analysis of the 1998 Locomotive Emission Standards. Due to data limitations and minimal ability to construct a reasonable counterfactual for each component of the cost analysis, the assessment relies mainly on industry expert opinion, augmented with ex post information from publicly available data sources when possible. The paper finds that the total cost of bringing line-haul locomotives into compliance with the 1998 Locomotive Emission Standards rule remains uncertain. Even though the initial per-unit locomotive compliance costs were higher than predicted by EPA, total costs also depend on the number of locomotives affected by the regulation. Over 2000–2009, the number of newly built line-haul locomotives was higher but the number of remanufactured line-haul locomotives was lower than EPA’s estimate.

scholarly journals Integrated Undergraduate Management Education: An Informal Benefit / Cost Analysis

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
William L. Casey, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Assessment Data ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Core Program ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Benefits And Costs

This paper seeks to contribute to the literature of management education by evaluating assessment data on Babson Colleges integrated undergraduate management core program (IMC). Transitions from functionally isolated curricula to more integrated alternatives involve both benefits and costs, accruing to faculty, students and sponsoring institutions. The relative benefits and cost of the Babson program are weighted based on recent assessment initiatives at the college.

scholarly journals The Benefits and Costs of Automotive Regulations for Low-Income Americans

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Kylie Conrad ◽  
John D. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Automobile Industry ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Distributional Analysis ◽  
Data Systems ◽  
Cost Analyses ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Benefits And Costs ◽  
Low Income Households

Abstract Benefit-cost analyses of regulations address Kaldor-Hicks efficiency but rarely investigate the distribution of benefits and costs as experienced by low-income households. In order to fill this gap, this article assembles the available evidence to determine how regulations of the automobile industry may impact the well-being of low-income Americans. The scope of the investigation includes air pollution, safety and fuel-economy regulations. We find that performing benefit-cost analyses for low-income households is more challenging than commonly understood. Given the difficulties in completing distributional analysis with available information, the authors offer practical suggestions on how to change the federal data systems and the rulemaking process to ensure that information is collected about how future automobile regulations impact the well-being of the poor.

An Analysis of the Private Returns From Three Land Development Options in the Southern Mallee of Nsw.

1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 244 ◽  
Author(s):  
DA Patton ◽  
JD Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Land Development ◽  
Net Income ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Extensive Grazing ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Western Division ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Benefits And Costs

In early 1993, the DLWC initiated a project to develop regional planning strategies for clearing and cultivation activities in the Southern Mallee and Northern Floodplain areas of the Western Division of NSW. Concentrating on the Southern Mallee region, a benefit-cost analysis of current clearing and cultivation proposals and their impact on the financial viability of the individual landholder has been conducted. While the development proposals all had the potential to return much higher levels of expected net income to farmers than the existing extensive grazing strategy, market and climatic uncertainty meant that the probability of the extensive grazing activity returning more than cropping was as high as 50% for some proposals. This means that farmers have to weigh up higher incomes on average from cropping against the more certain income from grazing. Clearly, this is a personal choice with the more risk averse decision makers favouring the extensive grazing option. However, we found that for levels of risk aversion that research suggests typifies Australian farmers, the development proposals were dominant over the extensive grazing option except where there was a higher proportion of land devoted to conservation at a discount rate of 12%. No attempt has been made in the present study to evaluate the public benefits and costs, in the form of changes in environmental resources, associated with such development proposals Key words: Western Division, conservation, clearing and cultivation, stochastic dominance, economics.

scholarly journals Incorporating Distributional Issues into Benefit Cost Analysis: Why, How, and Two Empirical Examples Using Non-market Valuation

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Loomis
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Contingent Valuation Method ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Interaction Terms ◽  
Valuation Method ◽  
Non Market Valuation ◽  
Benefit Cost

This article reviews the rationale for and various approaches used by economists to incorporate distributional consequences of projects or policies into benefit-cost analyses. Approaches reviewed include distributional weights and metrics based on the Lorenz curve. Analysis of distributional issues in partial equilibrium and general equilibrium settings are briefly reviewed. We present an empirical demonstration of how the contingent valuation method (CVM) and hedonic property methods (HPM) can be used to quantify how non-market environmental benefits are distributed by income and ethnicity. Using CVM, the distribution of non-market benefits can be cross-tabbed with respondent demographics, so that a variety of “distributions” of benefits by relevant demographic groups can be calculated. Using the HPM, the analyst can statistically test to see if the implicit price gradient varies with differences in income and ethnicity. In our empirical example, we find that ethnicity and income interaction terms on the implicit price gradient are statistically significant suggesting differential effects of National Forest fire suppression policies on Hispanics and low income households.

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