A multiple account framework for cost-benefit analysis

The paper presents a spreadsheet-based multiple account framework for cost-benefit analysis which incorporates all the usual concerns of cost-benefit analysts such as shadow-pricing to account for market failure, distribution of net benefits, sensitivity and risk analysis, cost of public funds, and environmental effects. The approach is generalizable to a wide range of projects and situations and offers a number of advantages to both analysts and decision-makers, including transparency, a check on internal consistency, and a detailed summary of project net benefits disaggregated by stakeholder group. Of particular importance is the ease with which this framework allows for a project to be evaluated from alternative decision-making perspectives and under alternative policy scenarios where the trade-offs among the project's stakeholders can readily be identified and quantified.