Cost-Benefit Analysis of Evidence Law and Factfinding

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.

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):  
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.


Author(s):  
Omid M. Rouhani ◽  
Christopher R. Knittel ◽  
Debbie Niemeier

Studies examining the social cost of driving usually ignore the opportunity cost of having roads in place: the associated land rents. Especially for geographic regions where land is valuable, including the rent costs may even lead governments to close some roads. By using the London congestion charging zone case, a more general long-run social cost curve is calculated with the addition of the rents. Based on the optimal road usage concept, this study found that including the rents in the cost/benefit analysis significantly affects the results and can increase the social cost by up to 200% and decrease the optimal road usage by 40%.


1975 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-314
Author(s):  
Shahrukh Rafi Khan

Pakistan, like any developing country, must regularly divert some of the scarce agricultural land to an alternative use—to another crop, to a site for a reservoir or a plant for processing agriculture's output, or to industrial, com¬mercial or housing purposes. This paper is an exercise in estimating he social cost of releasing agricultural land in the Punjab for use in another activity. It will, hopefully, serve as a model for planners and policy-makers who are con¬fronted with specific projects requiring cost-benefit analysis. For example, Pakistan's Fifth Five-Year Plan calls for construction of numerous sugar mills, sites for which will require an estimated 100 acres of agricultural land per mill. The-cost of using this land for sugar refining may be expressed in terms of the net value of the agricultural output foregone. Similarly, if cane cultivation > is extended to provide input for the refineries, its cost must be evaluated by the value of the crops which are foregone.


2004 ◽  
Vol 44 (161) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferhat Cejvanovic ◽  
Crtomir Rozman

Before making a decision to invest in fruit growing, an investor needs to have the basic information on which to base his decision. This information contains sufficient economic indicators to form the basis for the decision making. The decision should be based, first of all, on economic profitability of the investment. Cost-benefit analysis is a method which provides the decision maker with the information about a number of economic indicators regarding the desired investment, from its profitability and competitiveness to the return on investment period, etc. This paper deals with the cost-benefit analysis in the decision-making process concerning economic profitability of investing in agricultural production, namely the newly planted fruit. Cost-benefit analysis has many advantages compared with the other known methods. It has proved very useful in agricultural production since it makes it possible to estimate the profitability of investment in very specific conditions of agricultural production, taking into account numerous factors of its economic efficiency as well as the main effects that may be expected both by individual producers and the social community as a whole.


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. 


Author(s):  
Tetyana Kibuk

The article is devoted to the study of one of the most relevant and widely used tools of the modern decision-making process at the national and international levels – cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The article defines the purpose of the cost-benefit analysis. Three approaches to the selection of CBA stages are analyzed, among which there are three, from five to seven and ten stages. Their advantages and disadvantages are highlighted. The modern stages of the analysis of benefits and costs are systematized, namely: determining the level of analysis and its purpose; identification of alternatives to the public project; identification of the list of benefits and costs of the project; valuation in monetary terms of certain benefits and costs; establishing project evaluation criteria; discounting benefits and costs to obtain the present value of the project; determination of the net present value of social project options; analysis of the sensitivity of the social project; analysis of the distribution of existing benefits from the public project and selection one project among several alternative ones for implementation. The figures of the choice of existing alternatives of the public project are analyzed. Existing types of project costs are identified, including direct, indirect, tangible, intangible, opportunity and real costs. The list of benefits investigated by the analysis is determined, which include: monetary, non-monetary and intangible benefits. The difference between monetary valuation of project benefits and costs at shadow and market prices is investigated. The most common selection criteria in the modern project decision-making process are analyzed. The peculiarities of the formation of the social discount rate are highlighted. The features of sensitivity analysis and the purpose for its implementation are determined. Existing types of uncertainty and ways to overcome them are summarized, namely knowledge uncertainty, policy uncertainty and future uncertainty. The specifics of decision making in the cost-benefit analysis are studied. Further directions of research of problematic questions of the cost-benefit analysis in modern economy are identified.


2018 ◽  
pp. 321-342
Author(s):  
Gary S. Fields

The purpose of this chapter is to consider the cost-benefit criterion for resource allocation in labour surplus economies calling particular attention to the contrasts with full employment economies. The specific plan is as follows. Section 1 reviews the debate over the applicability of cost-benefit analysis to problems of investment in education. Section 2 draws two important distinctions which are not always clear to educational planners and enumerates the likely benefits, both private and social, from education. Section 3 considers the case of full employment economies. Section 4 looks at the private returns to education in labour surplus economies in relation to the demand for education. Section 5 considers the social costs and benefits in labour surplus economies. Section 6 raises the problems of measuring marginal social rates of return and demonstrates the inadequacy of wage differentials as a measure of marginal social benefit. Section 7 summarizes the main points.


2007 ◽  
pp. 70-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Demidova

This article analyzes definitions and the role of hostile takeovers at the Russian and European markets for corporate control. It develops the methodology of assessing the efficiency of anti-takeover defenses adapted to the conditions of the Russian market. The paper uses the cost-benefit analysis, where the costs and benefits of the pre-bid and post-bid defenses are compared.


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