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Cost-Benefit Analysis and Natural Resources

General data

Course ID: 4030-CBANR
Erasmus code / ISCED: 14.3 Kod klasyfikacyjny przedmiotu składa się z trzech do pięciu cyfr, przy czym trzy pierwsze oznaczają klasyfikację dziedziny wg. Listy kodów dziedzin obowiązującej w programie Socrates/Erasmus, czwarta (dotąd na ogół 0) – ewentualne uszczegółowienie informacji o dyscyplinie, piąta – stopień zaawansowania przedmiotu ustalony na podstawie roku studiów, dla którego przedmiot jest przeznaczony. / (0311) Economics The ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) code has been designed by UNESCO.
Course title: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Natural Resources
Name in Polish: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Natural Resources
Organizational unit: Faculty of Economic Sciences
Course groups: Sustainable Development, obligatory courses, 2nd cycle programme, 1st year, 2nd semester
Sustainable Development, obligatory courses, offered by the Faculty of Economic Sciences
ECTS credit allocation (and other scores): 2.00 Basic information on ECTS credits allocation principles:
  • the annual hourly workload of the student’s work required to achieve the expected learning outcomes for a given stage is 1500-1800h, corresponding to 60 ECTS;
  • the student’s weekly hourly workload is 45 h;
  • 1 ECTS point corresponds to 25-30 hours of student work needed to achieve the assumed learning outcomes;
  • weekly student workload necessary to achieve the assumed learning outcomes allows to obtain 1.5 ECTS;
  • work required to pass the course, which has been assigned 3 ECTS, constitutes 10% of the semester student load.
Language: English
Type of course:

obligatory courses
Requirements:

Sustainable Development Economics 4030-SDE
Mode:

Classroom
Short description:

This course is designed for students interested in the social welfare and economic efficiency of environmental projects and policies. The objective of the course is to provide an information concerning the rationale and the fundamental concepts of the social Cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The main purpose of CBA is to help social decision making and to facilitate more efficient allocation of society resources. During the course the following topics will be discussed:

Conceptual Foundations of CBA, Microeconomic Foundations of CBA, Economic value of environment, Shadow prices, Valuing environmental Impacts - revealed preferences methods, Valuing environmental Impacts - stated preferences methods, Discounting benefits and costs, Risk and uncertainty, Accuracy of CBA and Related evaluation methods such as Cost-Effectiveness Analysis and Multi Criteria Analysis.
Full description:

During the course the following topics will be discussed:

1. Introduction to Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA)

a. Individual vs. Social Costs and Benefits

b. The purpose and uses of CBA

c. The demand and the cost of CBA for environmental projects

2. Conceptual Foundations of CBA:

a. Using CBA for Decision Making

b. Fundamental Issues related to Willingness to Pay

3. Microeconomic Foundations of CBA:

a. Social surplus and allocative efficiency

b. Alternative ways to calculated Net Social Benefits

4. Economic value of environment:

a. Use, non-use and option values

b. Direct and indirect effects

5. Shadow prices:

a. General ways to derive shadow prices

6. Valuing environmental Impacts - revealed preferences methods:

a. Hedonic price Method

b. Travel Cost Method

7. Valuing environmental Impacts - stated preferences methods:

a. Contingent valuation

b. Choice modelling

8. Discounting benefits and costs:

a. Comparing projects with different time frames

b. Inflation, real and nominal values

c. The social discount rate

9. Risk and uncertainty:

a. Economic theory

b. Risk and irreversibility

c. Risk and the social discount rate

10. Accuracy of CBA:

a. Sensitivity analysis

b. Sources of errors in CBA studies

c. The distribution of net benefits over time

d. Concerns about the role of CBA in the political processes

11. Related evaluation methods and accuracy:

a. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

b. Multi Criteria Analysis
Bibliography:

• Boardman, A;, Greenberg, D., Vining, A., Weimer, D., (2012). Cost-Benefit Analysis: Concepts and Practice, 4th edition, Pearson.

• EC (2014). Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis of Investment Projects for Cohesion Policy 2014-2020, http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/publications/guides/2014/guide-to-cost-benefit-analysis-of-investment-projects-for-cohesion-policy-2014-2020
Learning outcomes:

Students will learn how to evaluate proposals by determining impacts as benefits and costs, valuing them in monetary terms and calculate the net benefits of a project relative to the status quo situation. Additionally, the course should help students in an appraisal of the validity and usefulness of different techniques employed in the economic valuation.

K_W02; K_W03; K_W05; K_W06

K_U01; K_U02; K_U04; K_U07; K_U08

K_K03; K_K04; K_K06; K_K09
Assessment methods and assessment criteria:

Participation, individual presentation of selected topics (40% weight in the final evaluation), written test (60% weight in the final evaluation).
Practical placement:

-

Classes in period "Summer semester 2023/24" (in progress)

Time span: 2024-02-19 - 2024-06-16
Selected timetable range:
Navigate to timetable
Type of class:
Classes, 30 hours more information
Coordinators: Anna Bartczak
Group instructors: Anna Bartczak
Students list: (inaccessible to you)
Examination: Grading
Course descriptions are protected by copyright.
Copyright by University of Warsaw.
Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28
00-927 Warszawa tel: +48 22 55 20 000 https://uw.edu.pl/ contact accessibility statement USOSweb 7.0.3.0 (2024-03-22)