1. EXTERNALITIES ROLE IN COMPILING COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF PROJECTS FINANCED FROM STRUCTURAL FUNDS.
- Author
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Şuster, Gabriel Adrian, Sirb, Nicoleta Mateoc, Iancu, Tiberiu, and Mănescu, Camelia
- Subjects
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EXTERNALITIES , *COST analysis , *CONSTRUCTION projects , *RESOURCE allocation , *METHODOLOGY - Abstract
The concept of externalities has been well defined in welfare economic theory than half a century, experts who has addressed this issue are trying to maximize the individual and social welfare through an optimal allocation of resources. A correct definition of externalities say that they are: costs and benefits that appear when socio-economic activities of a group of persons have an impact on another group and the first group fail in claiming complete responsible to its impact. We usually meet externalities in any area of economic activity, it also can be defined as third-effects (or spillover) arising from the production and / or consumption of goods and services for which is not paid an appropriate compensation. When prices mechanism does not take into account the full social costs and social benefits of production and consumption, externalities may cause market failure, actual market prices do not reflect the full costs or benefits of producing or consuming an one product or one service. Thus, an externality is a cost or a benefit undelivered through prices, incurred by a part who has not agreed to the action which causing this cost or benefit. In this case, the benefit is called a positive externality or external benefit, while a cost is called a negative externality or external cost. These external costs and benefits are opposed of classics costs and benefits as operating costs or revenues from the sale of energy (called internal or financial costs - nature of these costs is that they are paid at a price determined by the market and this price reflects all actual costs of the goods or services ). In the process of economic evaluation of externalities generated by projects financed from structural funds, in particular the investments made to stimulate regional development and growth, innovation and increasing of production, environmental sectors, transportation and infrastructure efficiency, the methodology used is based on replacement cost method. Economic evaluation of externalities is a difficult process done in the following stages: identifying its many effects, effects quantification in physical terms and effects evaluation in economic terms. Many of these projects effects are represented by externalities (intangible effects) which has no prices as a result of not existing market for them. The term "externality" refers to the fact that this effect is outside of the market. In this context, cost-benefit analysis is a technique for assessing monetary social costs and benefits of a capital investment project along a given period of time [1]. This paper attempts to identify the most important types of externalities that should be considered when developing a project, taking into account that the quantification of externalities (both positive and negative) is a comprehensive approach which involving the use of econometric tools and many key variables. The objectives of this paper are to identify and propose, a minimum set of positive and negative externalities that should be considered when developing cost-benefit analysis for a project, by type of investment framework, whether they are measurable and monetized or not [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013