01593840

Component

In this study Dutch politicians and top-level civil servants were interviewed to derive their attitudes towards the use of Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) in the appraisal of transport projects. A first conclusion is that the attitudes of Dutch politicians towards CBA are positive under the condition that CBAs are carried out in an impartial way. None of the interviewed politicians advocates an abandonment of CBA when the impartiality of the instrument could be safeguarded. According to politicians CBA improves the planning process, serves as a countervailing power, leads to optimization of projects and improves the sharpness of debates around infrastructure projects, amongst other things. Politicians also brought forward negative perceptions towards the use of CBA in the political process. They criticized the use of CBA to kill political debates, to delay political decision-making or to mystify the political trade-off, amongst other things. The solutions mentioned by politicians for improving their attitude towards CBA predominantly relate to processual issues with respect to CBA and the presentation of CBA results. Politicians argue that analysts should make explicit in CBA reports which elements of the political trade-off are (not) covered by a CBA and position CBA as a modest instrument.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABC10 Standing Committee on Strategic Management.

01584066

16-5627

English

15p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References

Attitudes; Benefit cost analysis; Politics

Politicians

Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Finance; Planning and Forecasting; Policy

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-5627

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 6:27PM