Discounting the Discount Rate: Ecocentrism and Environmental Economics

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Samuel Barkin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Discount Rate ◽  
Environmental Economics ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Environmental Goods ◽  
International Environmental Politics ◽  
Economic Tools ◽  
The Cost

As a tool for making decisions about long-term environmental policy, environmental economics does not work on its own terms. It works well as a tool for analyzing environmental policy given clear, exogenously defined costs and benefits. As such, environmental economics can work well as a tool for analyzing policy in the short term. But many of the most salient issues in international environmental politics are salient specifically because they have a fundamental long-term component. Economic tools have trouble pricing environmental goods, and the farther the cost element of cost/benefit analysis is projected into the future, particularly through the analytical tool of the discount rate, the less reliable estimates are likely to be. At a certain point, the compounding of this decreasing reliability makes the cost estimates analytically counterproductive. As such, this paper concludes that fundamental decisions about the relationship between economic activity and the natural environment in the long term need to be informed by ecocentric rather than economic thinking.

scholarly journals Integrated drought risk assessment to support adaptive policy making in the Netherlands

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjolein Mens ◽  
Gigi van Rhee ◽  
Femke Schasfoort ◽  
Neeltje Kielen
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Drought Risk ◽  
Adaptive Policy ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Support Decision Making

Abstract. Adaptive policy-making to prepare for current and future drought risks requires an integrated assessment of policy actions and combinations of those under changing conditions. This entails quantification of drought risks, integrating drought probability and socio-economic consequences for all relevant sectors that are potentially impacted by drought. The investment costs of proposed policy actions and strategies (various actions combined) can then be compared with the expected risk reduction to determine the cost-effectiveness. This paper presents a method to quantify drought risk in the Netherlands under changing future conditions and in response to policy actions. It illustrates how to use this information as part of a societal cost-benefit analysis and in building an adaptive long-term strategy. The method has been successfully applied to support decision making on the Netherlands’ national drought risk management strategy as part of the National Delta Program for climate change adaptation.

scholarly journals Cost–benefit analysis of a staff recreation centre project: build or lease? – A Case Study

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Monica Singhania
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Employee Morale ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Community Centre

This case study aims at comprehensively assessing a decision by XYZ Ltd (name withheld due to confidentiality), New Delhi, on whether to build or to lease a recreation centre for its rank-and-file employees. Based on a cost–benefit analysis, we concluded that the centre should be built since the company would recover its investment within 11 years. Apart from the financial considerations, the recreation centre could be considered a long-term investment in employee morale, as it would lead to a better quality of life for the staff and their families, and is likely to enhance their sense of belonging and improve productivity. To date, what little space there is available for hosting family functions is reserved for the use of the officers, and only officers and their families are invited to most company functions. Thus, the other employees feel neglected by the management. Hiring a community centre external to the organisation for a function would involve spending a lot of money as the company is located in a prime real estate area where the cost of land and rentals is huge, and sometimes even availability is an issue. Most of the staff cannot afford such places and are generally under a lot of stress whenever they have a family function. This, in turn, tends to affect their productivity. 

Artificial Intelligence in the Hospitality Sector

2021 ◽  
pp. 257-278
Author(s):  
Debdutta Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Changing Roles ◽  
Hospitality Sector ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
The Cost ◽  
And Robotics

Hospitality is one of the most important sectors of the economy and offers employment to thousands of people. The recent advances in technology has seen that quite a few of the players in this industry have successfully deployed artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics. This chapter delves into the details of such deployment in the various processes in this sector and discusses the short-term, medium-term, and long-term impact of these technologies on all the major stakeholders of this industry. The author also looks at the cost benefit analysis of this technologies and concludes that most players sooner, rather than later would be forced by competition to strongly adopt them. The chapter also briefly discusses the changing roles of human employees in this scenario.

Can economists value water's multiple benefits?

Water Policy ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
David F. Batten
Keyword(s):  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Output Analysis ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Classical Economic ◽  
Economic Tools ◽  
Economic Goods

If we recognize that water is not an ordinary economic good, we begin to understand why it is so difficult to assess and compare its many and varied benefits. Market instruments devised for conventional goods may not ensure that water is allocated efficiently and equitably. Classical economic tools, such as cost–benefit analysis, input–output analysis or equilibrium models, may not be able to embrace water's multiplicity of short, medium and long-term benefits. Only those parts of the water cycle close to intermediate and final users are usually treated as economic goods. If its vision is limited to linear, short run quantities and relationships, a computable model abstracts from a real world that we know is dynamic, nonlinear and co-evolutionary. Short run economic priorities for water policy tend to dominate over sustainable allocation and quality conservation in the longer run. There is a need to consider longer time horizons and the complex, dynamic character of water, if we are to meet the challenge of repairing Australia's seriously impaired natural waterways.

Hostile Takeovers and Anti-takeover Defenses in the Russian Corporate Market

2007 ◽  
pp. 70-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Demidova
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Hostile Takeovers ◽  
Russian Market ◽  
Takeover Defenses ◽  
The Cost ◽  
European Markets

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.

What's it Worth? Improving Surface Water Quality

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 153-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. H. Newsome ◽  
C. D. Stephen
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Surface Water Quality ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
The Cost

Many countries are investing in measures to improve surface water quality, but the investment programmes for so doing are increasingly becoming subject to cost-benefit analysis. Whilst the cost of control measures can usually be determined for individual improvement schemes, there are currently no established procedures for valuing the benefits attributable to improved surface water quality. The paper describes a methodology that has been derived that now makes this possible.

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