Lecture 4
Lecture 4
Lecture 4
Cost-benefit analysis
Spring 2024
Outline
• Cost-benefit criteria
• Discount rate
• Issues in cost-benefit analysis
• Applications
• Reference:
§ Environmental and Natural Resource Economics by Tom Tietenberg and
Lynne Lewis, 11th Edition: Chapters 3, 5
Outline
• Cost-benefit criteria
• Discount rate
• Issues in cost-benefit analysis
• Applications
• Reference:
§ Environmental and Natural Resource Economics by Tom Tietenberg and
Lynne Lewis, 11th Edition: Chapters 3, 5
Normative economics
• Positive economics !"#$%: what it is/was/will be
• Normative economics &'#$%: what ought to be
• Find the optimal choice
• 0 then maximizing
If the total available amount of this resource is 𝑄,
the present value of net benefits is:
Period 1 Period 2
Net benefit criterion: exercise
Present value of marginal net benefit in Period 1 equals that in Period 2
Net benefit criterion: exercise
Present value of marginal net benefit in Period 1 = 3.905-2 = 1.905
Present value of marginal net benefit in Period 2 = (4.095-2)/1.1 = 1.905
Period 1 Period 2
Internal rate of return
• Internal rate of return (IRR) 6789:;a discount rate that makes
present value of net benefit equal 0
%
𝑁𝐵#
2 =0
(1 + 𝐼𝑅𝑅)#
#$"
• Example:
– Project A costs $1000 in year 0 and has a benefit of $2000 in year 10.
2000
− 1000 = 0 ⇒ 𝐼𝑅𝑅 = 7.18%
(1 + 𝐼𝑅𝑅)!"
– Suppose cost of capital = 6%, the the project passes the criterion
Net benefit vs internal rate of return
• Example:
– Project A costs $1000 in year 0 and has a benefit of $2000 in year 10.
– Project B costs $1000 in year 0 and has a benefit of $3000 in year 20.
– IRR criterion: A better than B (IRR for A = 7.18%, for B = 5.65%)
– Net benefit criterion: depends on discount rate
Present value
333
0 Project A
Project B
• Cost-benefit criteria
• Discount rate
– Types of discount rate
– Estimate discount rate
– Origin of time preference
• Issues in cost-benefit analysis
• Applications
• Reference:
§ Environmental and Natural Resource Economics by Tom Tietenberg and
Lynne Lewis, 11th Edition: Chapters 3, 5
Discounting
• An unresolved debate in econ literature: whether discount rates
should be positive or normative?
# )*
#
𝑀𝑈( (1 + 𝜌) 𝐶" (1 + 𝜌)#
(1 + 𝑟' ) = $
= )* = (1 + 𝑔)*# (1 + 𝜌)#
𝑀𝑈(% 𝐶#
• 𝑟- = 𝜌 + 𝜂𝑔
• Cost-benefit criteria
• Discount rate
– Types of discount rate
– Estimate discount rate
– Origin of time preference
• Issues in cost-benefit analysis
• Applications
• Reference:
§ Environmental and Natural Resource Economics by Tom Tietenberg and
Lynne Lewis, 11th Edition: Chapters 3, 5
Estimate discount rate
Leasehold
(maturity T) Additional rental income
T periods compared to leasehold
Freehold
∞ periods
Estimate long-term discount rate
• How can we estimate very long-run discount rate (e.g., >100
years)? (Cont’d)
– D: annual rental income at time 1
– r: discount rate
– g: growth rate of rental income
– PT: price of a leasehold house with maturity T
– P∞: price of a freehold house
7
1+𝑔
𝐷 1 −
7 𝐷 1+𝑔 # 1+𝑟 8 7
𝐷
7
𝑃 =2 = 𝑃 = lim 𝑃 =
(1 + 𝑟) # 1+𝑔 7→8 1+𝑔
#$! 1− 1−
1+𝑟 1+𝑟
7
𝑃7 1+𝑔
− 1 = −
𝑃8 1+𝑟
– Example: if 100-year leasehold house is 10% lower than freehold
house, and g=0.7%, then r≈ 3%
Short-term vs long-term discount rates
• The choice of time horizon also affects the choice of discount rate.
Outline
• Cost-benefit criteria
• Discount rate
– Types of discount rate
– Estimate discount rate
– Origin of time preference
• Issues in cost-benefit analysis
• Applications
• Reference:
§ Environmental and Natural Resource Economics by Tom Tietenberg and
Lynne Lewis, 11th Edition: Chapters 3, 5
Origin of time preference
• Agriculture
– Intertemporal: Upfront agricultural investment, crop growth cycle and
yields
– Intuition: same as rooftop solar example
– Needed variation: variation in crop growth cycle and yields
The introduction of
new crops due to
Columbian Exchange
• Cost-benefit criteria
• Discount rate
• Issues in cost-benefit analysis
– Value estimation
– Uncertainty
• Applications
• Reference:
§ Environmental and Natural Resource Economics by Tom Tietenberg and
Lynne Lewis, 11th Edition: Chapters 3, 5
Value estimation
• Engineering approach for costs of technology
• Catalog the possible technologies that could be used to meet the
objective and to estimate the costs of those technologies.
• Rank all technologies by their marginal cost.
• Costs are not always easy to quantify, e.g., value of time
• Cost of pollution: accounting scope
• E.g., social cost of carbon: global or national?
• Cost-benefit criteria
• Discount rate
• Issues in cost-benefit analysis
• Applications
– CBA framework and steps: Clean Air Act
– CBA can be wrong: Mercury and Air Toxics Standard
– CBA research: Fuel Economy Standard
• Reference:
§ Environmental and Natural Resource Economics by Tom Tietenberg and
Lynne Lewis, 11th Edition: Chapters 3, 5
Clean Air Act
• opqrstuv
CBA used in Clean Air Act
Ecological
effects
Ref: Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990 - 2020:
Revised Analytical Plan For EPA's Second Prospective
Analysis
CBA used in Clean Air Act
• Scenario development
– Policy
• Business as usual scenario (counterfactual): no policy scenario
• Policy scenario
– Socioeconomic factors: same between two scenarios
Ref: Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990 - 2020:
Revised Analytical Plan For EPA's Second Prospective
Analysis
CBA used in Clean Air Act
Ref: Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990 - 2020:
Revised Analytical Plan For EPA's Second Prospective
Analysis
CBA used in Clean Air Act
• Cost estimation
Ref: Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990 - 2020:
Revised Analytical Plan For EPA's Second Prospective
Analysis
CBA used in Clean Air Act
Ref: Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990 - 2020:
Revised Analytical Plan For EPA's Second Prospective
Analysis
CBA used in Clean Air Act
• Ecological effects
Ref: Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990 - 2020:
Revised Analytical Plan For EPA's Second Prospective
Analysis
CBA used in Clean Air Act
• Valuation
– Data: Willingness-to-pay (GHIJ), Avoided medical costs, Value
of Statistical Life (K:LM=N)
Ref: Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990 - 2020:
Revised Analytical Plan For EPA's Second Prospective
Analysis
CBA used in Clean Air Act
• Comparison of benefits and costs
Ref: Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act 1990 - 2020:
Revised Analytical Plan For EPA's Second Prospective
Analysis
CBA can be wrong
• Which pollutants to
consider?
• Ignorance of co-benefits
• Ignorance of major
changes in the electricity
sector
predicts.
• Business-as-usual scenario
also ignores these
changes
CBA can be wrong
https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/mercury-and-air-toxics-standards
US fuel economy standard
• Costs and benefits of fuel economy standards
• Fuel economy standard |}#$z{
– Regulate how far our vehicles must travel on a gallon of fuel
US fuel economy standard
• Costs and benefits of fuel economy standards
• Fuel economy standard |}#$z{
– Regulate how far our vehicles must travel on a gallon of fuel
– Trump administration rolls back Obama-era fuel economy standard
Fuel economy standard
• Paper:
– Bento, A.M., Jacobsen, M.R., Knittel, C.R. and Van Benthem, A.A., 2020. Estimating the
costs and benefits of fuel-economy standards. Environmental and Energy Policy and the
Economy, 1(1), pp.129-157.
– Bento, A. M., Gillingham, K., Jacobsen, M. R., Knittel, C. R., Leard, B., Linn, J., ... &
Whitefoot, K. S. (2018). Flawed analyses of US auto fuel economy standards. Science,
362(6419), 1119-1121.
Conceptual framework
• New-car market
– Fuel-economy effect: Private welfare change from a marginal
tightening of the standard (price, quantity, costs, etc)
– Mileage effect: External welfare change from the environmental,
congestion, and safety externalities due to increased driving
– Gasoline effect: External welfare change from the environmental
externalities due to changed fuel consumption
• Budget constraint:
𝐼 + 𝐹 = 𝑝! 𝑋 + 𝑝" + Γ 𝑣
Γ = 𝜌 𝑝# + 𝑡# 𝑚𝑔
𝑔̅ 𝑔̅
• Revenue-neutral government:
𝑡# 𝐺 = 𝐻 + 𝐹
𝑉 𝑔,̅ 𝐸, 𝐹, 𝐻
= max 𝑢 𝐷, 𝑋 − 𝐸 + 𝜆 𝐼 + 𝐹 − 𝑝/ 𝑋 − 𝑝̂0 + 𝐶 𝑔B − 𝑔,̅ 𝑞B + 𝑝1 + 𝑡1 𝑚𝑔̅ 𝑣
Ref: Bento et al. (2020) and Fischer et al. (2007) The Energy Journal
Conceptual framework: welfare
• Welfare effect of a tightening of the fuel-economy standard:
Ref: Bento et al. (2020) and Fischer et al. (2007) The Energy Journal
Conceptual framework: welfare
• Welfare effect of a tightening of the fuel-economy standard:
𝜇: Marginal value of
government revenue
Ref: Bento et al. (2020) and Fischer et al. (2007) The Energy Journal
Results: private benefits and costs