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| Ex-Ante Policy Appraisal× | Benefit-Cost Analysis for Policy× | |
|---|---|---|
| Field | Public Policy | Public Policy |
| Family | Process / pipeline | Process / pipeline |
| Year of origin≠ | 2022 | 2018 |
| Originator≠ | Public-finance appraisal tradition; codified by HM Treasury (Green Book) | Welfare-economics tradition; Boardman, Greenberg, Vining & Weimer (synthesis) |
| Type≠ | Structured ex-ante appraisal of policy options | Monetised economic appraisal of policy options |
| Seminal source≠ | HM Treasury (2022). The Green Book: Central Government Guidance on Appraisal and Evaluation. London: HM Treasury. link ↗ | Boardman, A. E., Greenberg, D. H., Vining, A. R., & Weimer, D. L. (2018). Cost-Benefit Analysis: Concepts and Practice (5th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781108415996 |
| Aliases≠ | Policy Appraisal, Options Appraisal, Green Book Appraisal | Cost-Benefit Analysis in Policy, Policy Benefit-Cost Analysis, Social Benefit-Cost Analysis, BCA |
| Related≠ | 4 | 3 |
| Summary≠ | Ex-ante policy appraisal is the structured assessment of the costs, benefits, risks and trade-offs of alternative options for achieving a policy objective, carried out before a decision is taken. Codified in guidance such as the UK Treasury's Green Book, it provides a disciplined framework for deciding whether to intervene and, if so, how — by establishing the rationale and objectives, generating and narrowing a range of options, appraising each against a counterfactual, and recommending the option that offers best value for public money. Appraisal is the forward-looking complement to ex-post evaluation, which judges interventions after they have run. | Benefit-cost analysis (BCA), also called cost-benefit analysis, is a systematic appraisal that values all the material consequences of a policy in money, discounts them to present value, and recommends the option with the greatest net social benefit. Grounded in welfare economics and the compensation principle, it asks whether the gains to those who benefit exceed the losses to those who bear the costs across society as a whole. Set out comprehensively in Boardman, Greenberg, Vining and Weimer's standard textbook and operationalised by government guidance such as the UK Treasury's Green Book, BCA is the principal efficiency test applied to public investments and regulations. |
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