PAM 5300 - Cost-Benefit Analysis

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: PAM 2000, PAM 2300. Enrollment limited to: graduate students. Co-meets with PAM 3300.

Staff.

In-depth treatment of methods for public policy analysis. The course focuses on cost-benefit analysis, a method grounded in microeconomics and applied welfare economics. Topics include market failures; willingness to pay; opportunity costs; discounting future costs and benefits; handling uncertainty and risk; incorporating distributional impacts; methods to value a statistical life; and methods to value environmental quality and other non-market goods. Numerous examples are taken from a variety of policy areas, including crime, education, health, welfare, and regulation.

Outcome 1: Explain how to conduct cost-benefit analysis of government projects.

Outcome 2: Calculate the discounted present value of future costs and benefits.

Outcome 3: Evaluate distributional effects of public policies.

Outcome 4: Apply uncertainty and risk to policy analysis.

Outcome 5: Explain how to evaluate non-market activities such as environmental policy and the value of a statistical life.