Appraisal cost-benefit

The fiscal regime (or tax system) in some countries allows the cost of exploration and appraisal (E A) activity to be offset against existing income as a fiscal allowance before the taxable income is calculated. For a taxpaying company, the real cost of appraisal is therefore reduced, and this should be recognised in performing the cost-benefit calculations. 

In addition to the cost-benefit aspects of appraisal activities, there are frequently other practical considerations which affect appraisal planning, such as... 

Sir Richard Clarke to Sir Leslie Rowan, 21 Jan. 1965, and Clarke to Sir William Armstrong, Insight on defence costs , n.d., CLRK 1/3/4/1, Churchill College, Cambridge. In addition to The Economics of Defense in the Nuclear Age (Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1960), Clarke also recommended McKean s useful essay , Cost-benefit analysis and British defence policy , in Alan Peacock and D.J. Robertson (eds.). Public Expenditure Appraisal and Control (Edinburgh Oliver and Boyd, 1963), pp. 17-35. 

McKean, Roland N., Cost-benefit analysis and British defence expenditure , in Alan Peacock and D. J. Robertson (eds.). Public Expenditure Appraisal and Control, Edinburgh Oliver and Boyd, 1963, pp. 17-35. 

These kinds of project must still undergo a stringent appraisal process, to ensure that each is the best way of spending the money required. It follows that some kind of revenue must be calculated, and this can be done on the basis of savings on other expenditures, or benefits to the community. Such calculations are not easy, but they can be done, and cost benefit analysis is a well-practised technique. 

As when evaluating the published medical literature, results from economic analyses should not be taken at face value . Reports should be detailed, clear and transparent. It is crucial that readers be able to follow exactly what was done (with justification) throughout the analysis. Care should also be taken to determine that the type of analysis performed (for example CEA, CBA) corresponds with the analytical technique purported to be used in the study. Zarnke and colleagues sampled the published literature to assess whether evaluations labelled as cost-benefit analyses met the contemporary definition using CBA methodology. They reported that 53% of the 95 studies assessed were reclassified as cost comparisons because health outcomes were not appraised. Several authors have developed checklists that are useful when evaluating the overall quality of an economic analysis. One of the best-known checklists is given in Box 20.1. 

Full evaluation of qualified risk management options should be based on selection criteria that have been thoroughly checked, expanded if needed and agreed with the site stakeholders. To allow an overall evaluation, it is advisable to set out a system for scoring and weighting the conclusions for individual and unrelated criteria. Formal cost-benefit appraisal may be required to either separate close contenders or to support initial conclusions. 

UNIDO. 1986. Guide to Practical Project Appraisal -Social Benefit-Cost Analysis in Deuelopng Countries. 

A leading method for evaluating regulations is cost-benefit analysis. A major feature of cost-benefit analysis is the desire to express the valuation of non-pecuniary benefits and costs such as time savings and deaths and injuries avoided in dollar terms. This permits a strictly numerical comparison of benefits and costs. Transportation has been at the forefront of the development and application of cost-benefit analysis, and the DOT has a tradition of appraising investments and proposed regulations using it (Viscusi, 1996). 

So a fundamental issue to be considered is whether the established practice of cost benefit analysis remains appropriate, or whether there is a need to respond to the changing policy environment and to replace it with a new appraisal framework. To examine this issue, and to establish where financial assessment fits in, we first need to consider how conventional cost benefit analysis works. In doing so, we ignore rail projects which have a purely commercial return since ... 

We then consider briefly the alternatives to the cost benefit appraisal technique before moving on to consider how project evaluation techniques can be adapted to deal with the increasingly common situation in which the private sector is expected to assume some risk and to contribute to the financing of the project. 

In conventional cost benefit appraisal, the questions being asked are the same as that asked by an accountant of a private business. Instead of asking whether the shareholders of a business will become better off by investing in a project, in a conventional cost benefit appraisal the question is whether society as a whole will be better off by virtue of implementing the project. 

A conventional cost benefit appraisal is shown in Table 1. What is missing here is any treatment of ... 

If other policy aims, particularly related to the environment are to be taken into account properly, then this dependable formulation fails. Policy-orientated project appraisal is feasible - arguably this is what the so-called 56 criteria were attempting to provide (rather than a restricted cost benefit analysis as it has subsequently been called by the Department). The danger in adopting policy-led appraisals would seem to lie in the risk that benefits of transport investment to the economy as a whole will be lost. 

Therefore, the specification should identify how the costs and benefits of a standard are to be assessed and the approach to be used. At its most basic level, it will include an appraisal of the extent of failure for a particular standard and an approximation of the financial cost of reducing that failure. Clearly, contamination by some chemicals will be more difficult and costly to mitigate than others. 

Funded by the government, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) was set up as a Special Health Authority in the United Kingdom in 1999 and, as such, it is a part of the National Health Service (NHS). It was set up to provide the NHS (patients, health professionals, and the public) with authoritative, robust and reliable guidance on current best practice. Its key functions are to appraise the clinical benefits and the costs of those (health care) interventions and to make recommendations. Guidance is issued from each appraisal based on the clinical benefits,... 

The activities of PHARMAC are outlined in its Operating Policies emd Procedures document (See Appendix 1). The document sets out the criteria to be tciken into account when making decisions about the Pharmaceutical Schedule and emphasises the importance of basing decisions on the latest research-based information on the clinical benefits and risks of products. The criteria include cin appraisal of the cost-effectiveness of products and the overall budgetary impact of changes to the Pharmaceutical Schedule. 

A technique for project appraisal that weighs the total expected costs (including monetary costs and costs of risks) against the total expected benefits of one or more actions in order to choose the best or most profitable option. The technique is often referred to as CBA or as benefit-cost analysis in the United States. 

In a cost-utility multiple appraisal of deferasirox, deferoxamine, and deferiprone, it was concluded that in the short term there is little clinical difference between any of the three chelators in terms of removing iron from the blood and the liver, and that deferasirox may be cost-effective compared with deferoxamine but not compared with deferiprone [15 ]. The authors emphasized that the primary focus for future research should be on the longterm benefits of chelation therapy, including adverse reactions and adherence. 

The discount rate recommended by HM Treasury for both costs and benefits is 3.5% ( see THE GREEN BOOK - Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government Reference 8.14). This assumes that the monetary costs and benefits are expressed in real terms that is, at constant prices. The discount rate is made up of the sum of two components ... 

However, the performance such as activity, selectivity and life period etc of catalysts will influence on the whole production cost of the chemicals. The selection and preparation of catalysts must be closely integrated with the chemical production process in regard to the influence of the performance of catalysts on the process parameters and to the appraisement of the economic benefits of catalysts. 

This seems to be a common theme in supervisory coimseling and performance appraisal sessions. However, few, if any, managers or supervisors have the talent and time to "fix" an employee s weaknesses. They can provide objective feedback, of course, to support desired (e.g., safe) behavior and correct imdesired (e.g., at-risk) behavior. Here, I mean more than a list of job components on a behavioral checklist. I am referring to a person s relative ability to perform a certain job. It is far more cost effective to identify people s strengths and give them the kind of job opportunities that benefit from their talents and enable them to flourish. 

The appraisal of joint venture infrastructure projects under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) has resulted in the development of a new hybrid benefit-cost framework. The PFI benefit-cost framework is specifically designed to calculate the performance of a project from the perspective of the public sector in terms of the benefit yield per of contribution allowing for ... 

An example of such a framework was that developed to appraise the costs and benefits of the CrossRail project in London from the public sector s point of view. 

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