Cost Benefit Analysis of Agricultural and Environmental Projects

Many decisions regarding cost and benefits of different tasks are made in everyday life. For example, a household compares costs and benefits from buying a new environmentally friendly car. The cost benefit tests are also carried out for much larger projects such as changes in national transport systems. Common to most projects is the need for attaching costs and benefits to different items which can be difficult to assess such as the value of life or cost of the risk for future catastrophic events from, e.g., nuclear power works. The purpose of this course is to give theoretical and empirical knowledge on design of cost benefit studies applied mainly on environmentally related projects. After passing the course, the students will - be able to determine whether or not a project is suitable for cost benefit analysis - analyse the concept of social cost - have knowledge on different techniques for cost and benefit estimates - give account of what factors can have dramatic impacts on the estimated cost and benefits - know how to account for intangible costs or benefits of a project - describe the impact of time perspective on the outcome of a project - know how to account for distributional impacts of a project on for example different households and regions - analyse the possibilities and limitations of CBA