2009 Society Conference & Meeting


Advancing the Practice of Benefit-Cost Analysis

The Annual Meeting and Conference of the Society for Benefit Cost Analysis was held October 20 and 21, 2009 at the Washington Court Hotel, Washington, D.C.

The conference included panel presentations on themes related to benefit-cost analysis. The annual membership meeting of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis was held on the second day of the conference.

Panels

Day 1: Tuesday, October 20

2:00 - 2:15 Introductory Remarks

2:15 - 3:45 Panel 1: Social Policy I
Chair: Lynn Karoly, RAND Corporation 

  • The Rate of Return to the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program by James J. Heckman, Seong Hyeok Moon, Rodrigo Pinto, Peter Savelyev and Adam Yavitz
  • Deriving Benefit-Costs Analyses from Social Experiments: Challenges and Opportunities by Stephen H. Bell
  • A Synthesis of Benefit-Cost Studies of Welfare-to-Work Programs by Victoria Deitch and David Greenberg

3:45 - 4:00 Break

4:00 - 5:30 Panel 2: Public Health
Chair: James K. Hammitt, Harvard University

  • Foodborne Disease Surveillance Cost Benefit Analysis by Robert L. Scharff
  • A Hedonic Estimation of Benefits from Anti-Smoking Laws by Ramanan Laxminarayan, Shawn Magnuson, and Juha Siikamaki

Panel 3: Applications
Chair: Clive Belfield, Queens College

  • The Challenges of Homeland Security Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Illustrative Example by Katie Foreman and Bryan Roberts
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis of Real Estate Development Projects by Kenneth Acks

Day 2, Wednesday, October 21

7:30 - 8:00 Continental Breakfast

8:00 - 9:30 Panel 4: Water Planning
Chair: Scott Farrow, University of Maryland – Baltimore County

  • Treatment of General Equilibrium Effects in the Economic Appraisal of Large, Multipurpose Dams by Dale Whittington
  • Benefit Cost Analysis and Water Resources Planning Guidelines: Policy and Practice by Larry Prather and Norm Starler
  • Power Purchase Agreements for Risk and Rent Sharing in Himalayan Hydropower Developments by Glenn P. Jenkins

9:30 - 9:45 Break

9:45 - 11:15 Panel 5: CBA  and Governance
Chair: Daniel Cole, Indiana University

  • A Practical Guide for the Intensity of Effort in Regulatory Benefit-Cost Analysis by Richard A Williams, Jr. and Richard B. Belzer
  • CBA for the Environment–––A Handbook for Economists at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency by Scott Cole and Katarina Östberg
  • The Use of Benefit-Cost Analysis in Four States by Stuart Shapiro and Debra Borie-Holtz

Panel 6: Social Policy II
Chair: Glenn P. Jenkins, Queens University and Eastern Mediterranean University

  • Cost-Effectiveness in Early Childhood Development Programs: A Synthesis and Critique of Evidence in the First Decade of Life by Arthur Reynolds, Judy Temple, and Barry White
  • Estimating the Social Value of Higher Education: Willingness to Pay for Community and Technical Colleges Glenn C. Blomquist, Paul A. Coomes, Christopher Jepsen, Brandon C. Koford, and Kenneth R. Troske
  • Benefits and Costs of Slot Machine Gambling: A Forecast for Maryland by Scott Farrow

11:15 - 11:30 Break

11:30 - 1:00 Panel 7: Climate Change
Chair: Richard B. Belzer, Regulatory Checkbook

  • The “Social Cost of Carbon” Made Simple by Stephen Newbold, Charles Griffiths, Chris Moore, and Ann Wolverton
  • Decision Making and Climate Change—What Role for Economics? (a.k.a. “What Would Ben Franklin Say?”) by Fran Sussman
  • Conflicting Goals: Energy Security vs. GHG Reductions under the EISA Cellulosic Ethanol Mandate by Art Fraas and Rob Johansson

Panel 8: Theory and Methods I
Chair: Nandita Dasgupta, University of Maryland – Baltimore County

  • Implications of a Weaker form of Complementarity by Jon Neill
  • The Discount Rate for Public Projects by Richard O. Zerbe, Jr.
  • The Role of Pareto and Compensation Principles in Benefit-Cost Analysis by Andrew Schmitz

1:00 - 2:00 Lunch Break & Meeting of the Society SBCA Membership Meeting Minutes ( 165 KB PDF)

2:00 - 3:30 Panel 9: Theory and Methods II
Chair: David Ballard, GRA, Inc.

  • Is Willingness to Pay a Measure of Well-Being? by Mark Sagoff
  • Using Subjective Well-Being Measures to Value Policy Outcomes by Kevin Marsh

3:30 - 3:45 Break

3:45 - 5:15 Panel 10: Energy
Chair: Joseph Cordes, The George Washington University

  • Do Market Failures Justify Energy Efficiency Standards? by Wallace Oates, Ian Parry and David Evans
  • Optimal Subsidies for Wind Power: An Application to the Cape Wind Project by Jonathan Haughton and David Tuerck
  • Benefit-Cost Comparison of Alternative Propulsion Systems for Urban Delivery Vehicles by John D. Graham and Kerry Krutilla

Panel 11: Transportation
Chair: Chair Adam Sicking, Economics Team Leader Regulatory Development and Economic Analysis

  • Dulles Silver Line Metro: Cost Benefit Analysis Revisited by Nandita Dasgupta
  • Quantifying the Public- and Private-Sector Benefit of PPP Toll Road Projects by Lei Zhang
  • Benefit Cost Analysis of a Multiple Agency, Multiple Stakeholder Federal Investment Program: The NextGen Transformation of Air Traffic Control by David Ballard

For more information about the 2009 Society Meeting & Conference, contact us at sbcainfo@u.washington.edu or 206.616.4090.