Compare methods
Review your selected methods side by side; rows that differ are highlighted.
| Social Cost-Benefit Analysis× | Cost-Benefit Analysis× | |
|---|---|---|
| Field≠ | Economics | Health Economics |
| Family | Process / pipeline | Process / pipeline |
| Year of origin≠ | 1974 | 1970s |
| Originator≠ | Ian Little & James Mirrlees; Partha Dasgupta, Amartya Sen & Stephen Marglin (UNIDO) | Boardman, Greenberg, and colleagues (welfare economics) |
| Type≠ | Welfare-based project appraisal using shadow prices | Method |
| Seminal source≠ | Little, I. M. D., & Mirrlees, J. A. (1974). Project Appraisal and Planning for Developing Countries. Heinemann Educational / Basic Books. ISBN: 9780435845001 | 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. link ↗ |
| Aliases≠ | SCBA, Economic Appraisal, Shadow-Price Cost-Benefit Analysis, Social Appraisal of Investment Projects | CBA, economic appraisal, benefit-cost ratio |
| Related≠ | 3 | 5 |
| Summary≠ | Social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) appraises public investment projects from the standpoint of society as a whole rather than a private investor. It values inputs and outputs at shadow prices that reflect their true opportunity cost to the economy — correcting market prices for taxes, subsidies, trade distortions, and unemployment — applies distributional weights to gains accruing to different income groups, and discounts the resulting stream of social net benefits at a social discount rate to obtain a net present social value. The modern framework was systematized by Little and Mirrlees and, in parallel, in the UNIDO guidelines of Dasgupta, Sen, and Marglin. | Cost-benefit analysis compares the total monetary value of benefits produced by a program against its total monetary costs, reporting net present value (NPV) or benefit-cost ratio (BCR). Rooted in welfare economics and used extensively in public policy (transportation, environmental, education, health), CBA answers the question: 'Is this program worth doing from a societal perspective?' Unlike cost-effectiveness analysis, CBA monetizes both costs and benefits, enabling comparison across disparate program types. |
| ScholarGateDataset ↗ |
|
|