Course Presenter: :
Joanne Leung, Ministry of Transport
Kirsten Jensen, NZ Treasury
Date/Time:
Monday, 15th of March
Thursday, 18th of March
Monday, 22nd of March
Thursday, 25th of March
Monday, 29th of March
All sessions run from 9am until 1pm
Location: The Treasury, Level 3, 1 Terrace, Wellington.
There will be a 15-minute morning afternoon break in each session. Coffee and tea will be provided.
Many public policy decisions involve balancing costs and benefits. Cost-benefit analysis provides a structured framework for comparing costs to benefits and analysing which are greater overall. The objective of this course is to provide participants with an appreciation of that framework, gain a broad understanding of the economic theory that underlies cost-benefit analysis, as well as the specific quantitative steps necessary to execute a cost-benefit analysis.
On completion of this course, participants should be able to:
• identify when a policy question or issue would benefit from cost-benefit analysis;
• where appropriate, to translate a generic statement of a policy question or issue into an properly framed cost-benefit analysis;
• appreciate how costs and benefits that occur over time should be handled, including discussion of the choice and application of a discount rate;
• aware of the methods for quantifying costs and benefits that are not immediately measurable in economic terms and their roles in cost-benefit analysis;
• recognise and appropriately incorporate costs and benefits that are not possible to quantify;
• present the results of cost-benefit analysis to decision-makers in an effective manner (including how to complete NZ Treasury’s template).
| Day | Topic outline |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Introduction and learning objectives Structure of a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) The roles of CBA in policy development process Framing a cost-benefit analysis |
| Day 2 | Components of a cost-benefit analysis Intervention logic mapping Identifying cost and benefit items Carrying out a qualitative cost-benefit analysis |
| Day 3 | Overview of valuation of costs and benefits Sourcing cost and benefit values Key steps to carry out a quantitative cost-benefit analysis |
| Day 4 | Handling costs and benefits over time Treatment of uncertainty Presentation of analysis, results and recommendation |
| Day 5 | Practical application of the CBAx tool |
This course will be most helpful to policy advisors who need to understand the basic mechanics of a cost-benefit analysis, to conduct or be able to critically review cost-benefit analyses done by others.
No previous knowledge of economics is assumed. Some familiarity with economic thinking and terminologies would be helpful.
This course is provided by the Government Economics Network (GEN) at a cost of $300 plus GST per person.