Cost Benefit Analysis
Helping decision makers understand the net benefits of projects, policies and investments using cost benefit analysis.
Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) provides decision makers with insights into the social and economic benefits that a project, policy or investment will have. Regardless of project size, CBA is a rigorous and consistent assessment method which has applications for both public and private enterprise, and across a range of sectors from transport to health infrastructure, water, and agriculture, sport and tourism.
What we do
We bring rigorous analysis of economic, social and financial impacts to inform decision makers, ensuring they understand the full social, financial and economic impacts of a project, policy or investment. Cost benefit analysis answers important questions like:
- Do the economic benefits outweigh the costs?
- How can I select the highest value policy, program or project?
- Which projects should I prioritise?
- Which of my competing priorities should be advanced, and which should be actioned first?
How does cost benefit analysis help decision makers?
Our approach to CBA is underpinned by appropriately robust economic principles and delivered collaboratively with our clients. We work together to clearly articulate the ‘without project’ base case before analysing and quantifying impacts. Resulting analysis, built on published guidelines, academic literature, stakeholder engagement, data analysis, and the experience of our skilled economics team, helps establish a case that articulates the business or project need. CBA can also be used to evaluate policies and initiatives, and inform regulatory impact statements, social impact assessments and environmental impact statements.
In addition to preparing CBAs for Queensland, NSW, SA, ACT and Australian Governments, we have also worked with a range of smaller local authorities and private sector organisations.
With expertise in CBA across multiple sectors for public and private enterprise clients, we have assembled this knowledge and practice into a series of Cost Benefit Analysis Guides. Whether you are new to CBA or highly experienced, these guides educate and inform the reader to understand what they need to know.
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Cost-benefit analysis for decision makers
A non-technical guide to cost-benefit analysis for decision makers Decision-making is huge part of our everyday lives. Some decisions...
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The definition of the base case has the potential to completely change a CBA. Not only does the magnitude of impact change, but the benefit stream itself could change. Il-defined base cases lead to impacts being missed, benefits being over- or under-stated, and misalignment of the economic analysis and the service requirements.
Whether you have very little data, or al the data in the world, CBAs deliver a set of outputs to help inform decision making. These outputs are designed to be easy to interpret, easy to use and encompassing of al information. That said, the raft of information presented in analyses can be confusing. The purpose of this guide is to provide overarching considerations when interpreting CBA outputs.
Conceptually, Cost-Benefit Analyses (CBA) attempt to quantify and monetise every incremental impact associated with the initiative being assessed. This includes impacts with a market value, along with those which do not.
The focus of this guide is to provide decision makers with the questions that cost-benefit analysis can answer and how the results can inform decision making.
Click here to download the Decision Making Using CBA Explainer
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