Mackie, P, Worsley, T and Eliasson, J (2014) Transport appraisal revisited. Research in Transportation Economics, 47. 3 - 18. ISSN 0739-8859
Abstract
Cost-benefit analysis has become a widely used and well developed tool for evaluation of suggested transport projects. This paper presents our view of the role and position of CBA in a transport planning process, partly based on a survey of a number of countries where CBA plays a formalised role in decision making. The survey shows that methodologies, valuations and areas of application are broadly similar across countries. All countries place the CBA results in a comprehensive assessment framework that also includes various types of non-monetised benefits. An important advantage with using CBA is that it is a way to overcome cognitive, structural and process-related limitations and biases in decision making. Some of the main challenges to CBA and to quantitative assessment in general lie in the institutional and political context. There is often a risk that CBA enters the planning process too late to play any meaningful role. This risk seems to increase when planning processes are centred around a perceived "problem". If the problem is perceived as important enough, even inefficient solutions may be viewed as better than nothing, despite that the definition of what constitutes a "problem" is often arbitrary.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Research in Transportation Economics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Cost-benefit analysis, Project appraisal, Transport investments |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Jul 2015 10:39 |
Last Modified: | 21 Oct 2015 19:01 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2014.09.013 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.retrec.2014.09.013 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:87223 |