Content
Microeconomic foundations of CBA (compensating variation, equivalent variation, Potential Pareto Improvements, Consumer surplus, Producer surplus and Government surplus), valuing changes in the primary markets and in the secondary markets, benefit transfer, valuing health effects, discounting, social discount rate, dealing with uncertainty, distributional aspects, climate change and CBA
Learning goals
- to understand the microeconomic theory behind CBA
- to learn the basic principles of benefit-transfer and
- how to assess the value of outcomes of projects affecting market prices
- to be able to distinguish between impacts in the primary markets and the secondary markets and understand when the impacts in the secondary markets should be included in the CBA.
- to understand the impact of the choice of the discount rate on the net present value of a project, illustrate and critically assess the different theories regarding the choice of the discount rate, and calculate the net present value of a project.
- to understand how uncertainty is incorporated into cost-benefit analysis in both theory and practice and perform expected value analysis and Monte-Carlo sensitivity analysis.
- to understand how health effects and distributional issues can be incorporated into cost-benefit analysis and perform a simple distributionally weighted cost-benefit analysis.
- to understand, illustrate and critically appraise the philosophical and ethical underpinnings of CBA and critically assess CBA-studies and distinguish a well-conducted CBA from a poor one
Conduct of the course
Self-paced online course - you will learn how cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of projects and policies is used to assist decision making. Recorded videos & other materials available online, online exam on fixed dates in April, May, June 2025
Course opens March 10, 2025.
Registration
The registration period is from February 14, 2025, to June 1, 2025. The course area closes on July 31, 2025.
The course fee is 75 euros. The course is free for degree students at the University of Helsinki.
Read more about the course on the course page.
This is a joint course: open University students participate in teaching organized by the Master's Programme in Agricultural, Environmental and Resource Economics together with degree students. A limited number of open University students can enroll on the course.
Open university students enroll on the course through the course page while the period of enrolment is open. The study fee is paid online as a part of the enrolment process. Please note that the enrolment is binding. Read more: Open University Enrolment and Fees (helsinki.fi)
Degree students enroll on the course in Sisu. The course is free of charge for degree students who meet the registration requirements.
A University of Helsinki user account will be issued to open university students upon enrolment. You can activate your account at the earliest on the day following your enrollment. Instructions for activating your account are available in the Studies Service.
You can access the online learning environment on DigiCampus space with your University of Helsinki user account. Online learning environment opens on March 10th, 2025. When you are logging into the DigiCampus space for the first time and it requires a course key, you can find it on the course page. You can see the course key by logging into the course page with your UH user account.
Here's how to join the course:
- Log in with your University of Helsinki username via the "Log in" | Haka login option. Select the University of Helsinki as your home organization. Read more about logging into DigiCampus with Haka credentials.
- Join the course as a student - Enroll in the course through self-registration.
- Teacher
Anna-Kaisa Kosenius