Tag
cost_benefit_analysis
8 findings
Firms & operationsHigh-Cost Tailored Consulting InefficiencyConsulting increased business literacy by 0.3 questions on a 4-question quiz (0.52 standard deviations, p < 0.05), but generated an average stated income change of only 0.90 GH¢ (upper bound 95% CI of 41 GH¢ / 28% increase), which is negligible relative to the $75/hour consultant cost. Participants expressed a mean willingness-to-pay of only 5.9 GH¢ (US $4) per hour for continued consulting.RCTFinance & microfinanceCost-Effective Field Information AcquisitionCollecting community information and providing truthfulness incentives adds an estimated INR 40 (US$0.70) per loan, which is substantially lower than the generated monthly returns of 24-30% (or US$11.40 extra monthly household profits) achieved by high-potential entrepreneurs.RCTPolicy & public sectorFiscal Return on Active Labor Market PoliciesStandard public counseling cost €120 per client. Public intensive counseling cost €657 per client and reduced government net costs slightly per job seeker (statistically non-significant). Private intensive counseling cost between €900 and €3,947 per client and increased total net government expenses by approximately €1,162 per enrollee without reducing overall unemployment benefit days paid.RCTEconomics (general)Myopic Stopping Rules for Adaptive Field ExperimentsCalculates wave-by-wave net return by summing expected participant welfare net of costs (weighted by treatment assignment shares $(1-\gamma)\hat{p}_{t}^{dx} + \gamma/k$) and the marginal decrease in treatment effect estimator variance. The experiment continues if and only if expected net return is greater than zero.RCTPolicy & public sectorPublic Cost-Benefit Valuation of Policy RegimesThe intensified activation policy regime generated a net societal economic value of €2,000 per exposed unemployed individual, excluding macro general equilibrium effects.Observational StudyPolicy & public sectorSix-to-One Social Benefit-to-Cost Efficiency in Youth EmploymentSocial benefits from violent crime reduction in OSC+ were estimated to be nearly six times larger than program costs (~6:1 benefit-cost ratio). SYEP cost per participant was ~$1,400 ($1,463 in 2017 dollars), producing substantial overall reductions in incarceration and premature deaths at a fraction of alternative program costs.RCTEducationRapid Benefit-to-Cost Payback Period for Holistic SupportProgram participation increases estimated participant earnings by $1,326 annually ($7,050 associate degree premium x 0.16 + $2,200 partial college premium x 0.09), fully covering total three-year program expenditures in 4.25 years of post-schooling employment.Expert TheoryPolicy & public sectorSocial Cost-Benefit Asymmetry in Youth Crime PreventionPreventing 34 arrests per 1,000 at-risk youth yields $652 to $1,250 in crime reduction savings per participant, directly offsetting 46.5% to 89.4% of total program cost ($1,403) during the summer alone. For low-risk youth, social savings from averted crime total only $2 to $3 per participant.RCT