CPB uses cost-benefit analyses to evaluate projects: are the total benefits larger than the total costs? In other words: will the welfare for the society as a whole increase by realising the project.
According to economic theory, taxation drives a wedge between private and public benefits, which distorts labour supply, consumption and investment and leads to loss of welfare.
CPB Discussion Paper 370 | 24 January 2018
26 pages | pdf document, 1.6 MB
CPB Communication | 5 December 2017
pdf document, 2.1 MB
In CBA practices around the world, benefits are valued regardless of to whom they accrue. This disregards basic economic principles, like declining marginal utility of income, or inequality aversion. This paper argues that if redistribution matters, net benefits must be aggregated using a distributionally weighted CBA.
CPB Discussion Paper 364 | 10 October 2017
24 pages | pdf document, 1.4 MB
CPB Communication | 20 September 2017
pdf document, 1.1 MB
The Netherlands is a global reference for flood risk management. This reputation is based on a mix of world-class civil engineering projects and innovative concepts of water governance. For more than a century, cost-benefit analysis has been an important tool for both flood risk management as well as water governance in the Netherlands. It has helped to select the most effective and efficient flood risk projects and to coordinate and reconcile the interests of various policy areas, levels of government and private stakeholders.
CPB Background Document | 22 August 2017
52 pages | pdf document, 1.7 MB
