Boardman Cost Benefit Analysis Concept and practice chapter1
INTRODUCTION
T O COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
In the Affair of so much Importance to you, wherein you ask my Advice, I cannot for want of sufficient Premises, advise you what to determine, but if you please I will tell you how. When those difficult Cases occur, they are difficult, chiefly because while we have them under Consideration, all the Reasons pro and con are not present to the Mind at the same time; but sometimes one Set present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out of Sight. Hence the various Purposes or Inclinations that alternately prevail, and the Uncertainty that perplexes us.
To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two
Columns; writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four
Days Consideration, I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different
Motives, that at different Times occur to me, for or against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two
Reasons con, equal to some three Reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding
I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther consideration, nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side. I come to a Determination accordingly. And, tho' the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision of
Algebraic Quantities, yet, when each is thus considered, separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better,. and am less liable to make a rash
Step; and in fact I have found great Advantage from this kind of Equation, in what may
Algebm.
be called Moral or Pr~idential
-B.
Franklin, London, September 19, 1772'
2
Chapter 1
INDIVIDUAL VERSUS SOCIAL COSTS
T O COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
In the Affair of so much Importance to you, wherein you ask my Advice, I cannot for want of sufficient Premises, advise you what to determine, but if you please I will tell you how. When those difficult Cases occur, they are difficult, chiefly because while we have them under Consideration, all the Reasons pro and con are not present to the Mind at the same time; but sometimes one Set present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out of Sight. Hence the various Purposes or Inclinations that alternately prevail, and the Uncertainty that perplexes us.
To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two
Columns; writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four
Days Consideration, I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different
Motives, that at different Times occur to me, for or against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two
Reasons con, equal to some three Reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding
I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther consideration, nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side. I come to a Determination accordingly. And, tho' the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision of
Algebraic Quantities, yet, when each is thus considered, separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better,. and am less liable to make a rash
Step; and in fact I have found great Advantage from this kind of Equation, in what may
Algebm.
be called Moral or Pr~idential
-B.
Franklin, London, September 19, 1772'
2
Chapter 1
INDIVIDUAL VERSUS SOCIAL COSTS