财政学格鲁伯第八章.ppt

Cost-Benefit Analysis 1 8.1 Measuring the Costs of Public Projects 8.2 Measuring the Benefits of Public Projects 8.3 Putting It All Together 8.4 Conclusion 2 2 3 8.1.2 Measuring Current Costs The social marginal cost of any resource (e.g., the asphalt, labor, and future maintenance costs) is its opportunity cost: the value of that input in its next best use. Perfect market 1. Consider first the asphalt. the opportunity cost is the market price (If the price of a bag of asphalt is $100, the asphalt costs for the project will be $100 million) 2. the labor market . If the market wage for construction workers is $10 per hour, then the opportunity cost of the labor for the project is $10 million. 4 Imperfect Markets Suppose, however, that for some reason there is unemployment among construction workers—perhaps state law mandates a minimum wage of $20 for construction workers.3 If $20 is above the equilibrium wage in the construction sector, there will be some workers who would happily work at the prevailing $20 per hour wage but who cannot find jobs at that wage. What is the opportunity cost of the time of any unemployed workers you bring onto the job? the opportunity cost for unemployed construction workers is only $10 per hour, not $20 per hour. If half of the million man-hours that are required for this job come from workers who are unemployed, then the opportunity cost of hiring 1 million worker hours is 20 * 500,000 +10 * 500,000 = $15 million. 5 Measuring Future Costs present discounted valueIf a private firm were making an investment decision, the proper discount rate should represent the opportunity cost of what else the firm could accomplish with those same funds. If there is an existing investment that yields 10% per year with certainty, and the firm pays a tax rate of 50%, then this investment would net the firm a return of 5% per year. the government counts that full 10% as it