A REVIEW OF THE METHODOLOGY FOR SOCIAL COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS AS PROPOSED BY THE WORLD BANK

In this review of the proposed procedures for social cost benefit analysis I have taken as the principal references two recent World Bank publications on this subject, L. Squire and Herman G. van der Tak, Economic Analysis of Projects, The Johns’ Hopkins University Press, 1975; and Colin Bruce, "Social as Cost Benefit Analysis: A Guide For Country and Project Economists To the Derivation and Application of Economic and Social Accounting Prices, World Bank Staff Working Paper No. 239 August, 1976. To obtain a clearer impression of how this methodology is to be applied I have referred to a World Bank Coordinated study Professor Michael Veitch, "National Parameters for Project Approval in Malaysia", and "The Opportunity Cost of Labour (in Peninsular Malaysia) Economic Planning Unit Prime Minister’s Department, Government of Malaysia, September, 1977, when a theoretical issue has not been clear in the above manuscripts I have referred to the book by IMD. Little and J.A. Mirrlees, Project Appraisal and Planning for Developing Countries, Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1974. As all the World Bank documents are very explicit in giving credit to the Little Mirrlees as providing the theoretical foundation for their applied methodology.