In this note we discuss how to estimate the social discount rate when banks have market power. Some data from Sweden are used to illustrate the approach. If other investments are crowded out, the implied social discount rate is around 7 percent, i.e. more or less equal to the one suggested by...

In this note we discuss two alternative ways of undertaking a social cost-benefit analysis. One approach is the conventional one where benefits and costs are expressed in monetary units. The other approach uses an environmental asset as the payment vehicle. The properties of the two approaches...

In this note we discuss how to treat taxes in a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). In particular we relate the shadow price of taxes in CBA to the concepts the marginal cost of public funds MCPF) and the marginal excess burden (MEB) of taxes. In particular we demonstrate that the MCPF is equal to one...

In this note we discuss two alternative ways of undertaking a social cost-benefit analysis. One approach is the conventional one where benefits and costs are expressed in monetary units. The other approachuses an environmental asset as the payment vehicle. The properties of the two approaches...

This paper offers a non-technical overview of the issues involved when applying cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to hydropower, both in terms of new installations and changing existing regulatory structures. Our focus is on the conceptual and empirical problems of applying CBA to provide decision...

Conventional cost-benefit rules typically assume that the alternative to the project under evaluation is 'doing nothing' or 'business as usual'. In this note we contrast this approach to one where the alternative is to provide another environmental good or service. We show that this approach,...