Benefit-Cost Analysis for Policy

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.