Views cost-benefit analysis as applied welfare economics. This book features analyses of theory related applications in mental health, condom social marketing programs, female primary education as a means of preventing HIV/AIDS and the pricing of natural gas.

This fully updated new edition continues in the vein of its predecessor by viewing cost-benefit analysis as applied welfare economics, while at the same time building on the earlier framework by extending the theory and providing further applications in each chapter. New for this edition are analyses of theory related applications in mental health, condom social marketing programs, female primary education as a means of preventing HIV/AIDS and the pricing of natural gas. Presented in an integrated manner, the theoretical concepts are constructed around the main building blocks of CBA, such as shadow pricing, distribution weights, the social discount rate and the marginal cost of public funds. This edition will cement the book's place as a major and accessible text in the field and will be of great interest to graduate and undergraduate students of welfare economics and microeconomic theory, as well as government economists involved with any area of public policy.

Contents: Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Part I
1. Introduction to CBA
Part II
2. Compensation Tests
3. Consumer Surplus
Part III
4. Shadow Prices
5. External Effects
6. Public Goods
7. Risk and Uncertainty
8. Measurement of Intangibles
9. Marginal Cost of Public Funds
Part IV
10. Distribution Weights
11. Social Discount Rate
Part V
12. User Fees
References
Index