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Appropriate Discounting for Benefit-Cost Analysis

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  • Burgess David F

    (University of Western Ontario)

  • Zerbe Richard O

    (University of Washington, Seattle)

Abstract

In order to be sensible about what discount rate to use one must be clear about its purpose. We suggest that its purpose is to help select those projects that will contribute more net benefits than some other discount rate. This approach, which is after all the foundation for benefit-cost analysis, helps to reconcile different suggested procedures for determining the discount rate. We suggest that the social opportunity cost of capital (SOC) is superior to other suggested approaches in its generality and its ease of use. We use the SOC to determine a range of real rates that vary between 6% and 8%. We suggest that approaches based on determination of preferences, which result in hyperbolic discounting, are less appropriate and less useful.

Suggested Citation

  • Burgess David F & Zerbe Richard O, 2011. "Appropriate Discounting for Benefit-Cost Analysis," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:jbcacn:v:2:y:2011:i:2:n:2
    DOI: 10.2202/2152-2812.1065
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    Cited by:

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    2. Frits Bos & Thomas van der Pol & Gerbert Romijn, 2018. "Should CBA’s include a correction for the marginal excess burden of taxation?," CPB Discussion Paper 370, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    3. Wang, Sun Ling & Heisey, Paul & Schimmelpfennig, David & Ball, Eldon, 2015. "Agricultural Productivity Growth in the United States: Measurement, Trends, and Drivers," Economic Research Report 207954, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Moore Mark A. & Boardman Anthony E. & Vining Aidan R., 2013. "More appropriate discounting: the rate of social time preference and the value of the social discount rate," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Mark A. Moore & Anthony E. Boardman & Aidan R. Vining, 2020. "Social Discount Rates for Seventeen Latin American Countries: Theory and Parameter Estimation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(1), pages 43-71, January.
    6. Rafał Buła & Monika Foltyn-Zarychta, 2022. "Declining Discount Rates for Energy Policy Investments in CEE EU Member Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, December.
    7. Gillespie, Rob & Kragt, Marit E., 2012. "Accounting for Nonmarket Impacts in a Benefit-Cost Analysis of Underground Coal Mining in New South Wales, Australia," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 1-29, May.
    8. Johansson Per-Olov & Kriström Bengt, 2011. "Comment on Burgess and Zerbe: On Bank Market Power and the Social Discount Rate," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-6, August.
    9. Moore, Mark A. & Boardman, Anthony E. & Vining, Aidan R., 2013. "The choice of the social discount rate and the opportunity cost of public funds," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 401-409, December.
    10. Tamai, Toshiki, 2023. "The rate of discount on public investments with future bias in an altruistic overlapping generations model," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Szekeres, Szabolcs, 2023. "Opportunity Cost of Capital, Marginal Cost of Funds and Numeraires in Cost-Benefit Analysis," MPRA Paper 118725, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Stefano Mainardi, 2021. "Parametric and Semiparametric Efficiency Frontiers in Fishery Analysis: Overview and Case Study on the Falkland Islands," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(2), pages 169-210, June.
    13. Peter Abelson & Tim Dalton, 2018. "Choosing the Social Discount Rate for Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 51(1), pages 52-67, March.
    14. Scott Farrow & W. Kip Viscusi, 2013. "Towards principles and standards for the benefit–cost analysis of safety," Chapters, in: Scott O. Farrow & Richard Zerbe, Jr. (ed.), Principles and Standards for Benefit–Cost Analysis, chapter 5, pages 172-193, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Hansen Jason & Lipow Jonathan, 2013. "Accounting for systematic risk in benefit-cost analysis: a practical approach," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 361-373, December.
    16. Burgess David F. & Zerbe Richard O., 2013. "The most appropriate discount rate," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 391-400, December.
    17. Szekeres, Szabolcs, 2023. "The simple answer to the Social Discount Rate question," MPRA Paper 117843, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Abeer Al Yaqoobi & Marcel Ausloos, 2022. "An Intergenerational Issue: The Equity Issues due to Public-Private Partnerships. The Critical Aspect of the Social Discount Rate Choice for Future Generations," Papers 2201.09064, arXiv.org.
    19. Donald F Vitaliano, 2016. "Benefits and Costs of the Erie Canal: A New View," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 42(4), pages 581-593, September.
    20. Akbulut, Hale & Seçilmiş, Erdem, 2019. "Estimation of a social discount rate for Turkey," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 78-85.
    21. Szekeres, Szabolcs, 2024. "Resolving the Discounting Dilemma," MPRA Paper 120014, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    22. Monika Foltyn-Zarychta, 2021. "Future-Generation Perception: Equal or Not Equal? Long-Term Individual Discount Rates for Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-19, December.
    23. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Paul N. Riskind, 2017. "Deterrence and the Optimal Use of Prison, Parole, and Probation," NBER Working Papers 23436, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Frits Bos & Thomas van der Pol & Gerbert Romijn, 2018. "Should CBA’s include a correction for the marginal excess burden of taxation?," CPB Discussion Paper 370.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    25. Szekeres Szabolcs, 2011. "Comment on Burgess and Zerbe's "Appropriate Discounting for Benefit-Cost Analysis"," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-11, August.

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