After successful completion of the course, students are able to...

understand the principles of benefit-cost analysis in detail, and to apply economic valuation methods (e.g. for public goods and externalities).

Learning goals:

*Comprehensive knowledge about the foundations and principles of benefit-cost Analysis •Welfare economics •Discounting *Overview and understanding of methods for the economic valuation and monetization of public goods •Revealed – stated preferences •Ecosystem services *Strengths and weaknesses of benefit-cost analyses *Application of benefit-cost analysis

*Introduction: economics and the bare bones of benefit-cost analysis  •Economics and scarce resources  •Economics and the Environment   -Ecosystem services and the economics efficient (optimal) quality of the environment  •Public goods, externalities – a brief repetition *Structure and process of a benefit-cost analysis  •Benefits and Costs of the Donauauen National Park, Austria *Basics of Welfare Economics  •Supply and demand  •Utility, willingness-to-pay, willingness-to-accept *Discounting  •Valuation of future events  •Uncertainties, risks: sensitivity analyses *Economic valuation of public goods and services  •Ecosystem services & different kinds of values  •Methods of environmental valuation: revealed & stated preference *Revealed preferences and cost-based methods *Specific topics: valuation of health impacts & of time *Stated preferences  •Contingent valuation  •Choice experiments *Best practice guidance for stated preference surveys

Lectures

Written exam

Courses of earlier semesters: VU Ökonomische Methoden der Projektbewertung - Economic Evaluation of Projects (Master); advantage. Principles of Economics; Public Finance and Infrastructure Economics