The School of Economics

The School of Economics

Georgia Institute of Technology

Economics 4801/6150: Cost-Benefit Analysis

Spring 2001

Instructor:Rod Duncan

Location: 55-111, Instruction Center 111

Times: MWF 2:00

Office: Habersham 217, Ivan Allen Building

Office Hours:Monday 12-2, 3-5pm or by appointment

E-mail: (preferred mode of communication)

Phone:404-385-1363

Course Prerequisites: A familiarity with the basic concepts and tools of microeconomics is required.

Course Objectives: To enable students to carry out limited cost-benefit analyses of public projects, as well as to critically evaluate the work of others. The emphasis in the class will be on the analysis of large engineering projects such as dams, bridges and roads.

Attendance: Attendance is required. Students will be responsible for all material presented in class or on the required readings. Students will be expected to have read material before the beginning of each class. Attendance and participation will be particularly important for the later stages of the course when case studies are presented.

Text and other materials: The required text for the course is CostBenefit Analysis: Concepts and Practice by Boardman, Greenberg, Vining and Weimer, published by PrenticeHall, 1996. There will also be a set of case studies that will be available in electronic form through XanEdu.

Term Paper:Each student will prepare a brief term paper that will summarize the application of CBA to a problem or issue area. Some possible topics include: water resource management, air pollution, noise pollution, solid waste disposal, nuclear energy, solar energy, "star wars" defense, alternative transportation systems, value of life and/or health, value of time, regulation training programs, or any other application that is of interest. This paper should be at least 7 pages in length.

Assignments:Problem sets will be assigned as homework (to be turned in) from time to time.

Case Studies:At the beginning of the course, classes will be primarily lectures, as the important tools of CBA are presented. The second half of the course will be based on cases punctuated with occasional lectures. Students should have read and be familiar with the case study assigned for that class period, and should be ready to discuss the case in detail during class. Cases will be drawn from a collection of Harvard Kennedy School cases.

Grading: The weighting of the quizzes and exams will be:

Class Participation 20%

Term Paper and Assignments30%

Mid-Term Exam20%

Final Exam30%