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“Cost-benefit analysis”, according to the Department of Finance’s 1991 Handbook of Cost-Benefit Analysis, which Phil authored as an analyst on staff, “is a method for organising information to aid decisions about the allocation of resources. Its power as an analytical tool rests in two main features: costs and benefits are each as far as possible expressed in money terms and hence are directly comparable with one another; and costs and benefits are valued in terms of the claims they make on and the gains they provide to the economy as a whole, so the perspective is a ‘global’ one rather than that of any particular individual, organisation or group”.[1]
Cost-benefit analysis methodology evolves with new learnings, technologies, problems and opportunities, while the core principles remain unchanged. In the early 2010s, Phil led the consultancy to scope a refresh of the National Guidelines for Transport System Management, which have become today’s Australian Transport Assessment and Planning (ATAP) guidelines.
For the former National Faster Rail Agency, Phil and Anthony undertook-an examination of opportunities to refine and enhance the project evaluation framework as it relates to ‘transformative’ transport infrastructure initiatives and notably faster passenger rail. These included adding distance-related values of travel time savings and a dependent development wider economic benefit to the appraisal toolkit, as well as updating, in a downward direction, the recommended project discount rate and aligning the appraisal period with a project’s asset cost-weighted length of life. The report was published on the agency’s website.
Phil’s research paper, ‘Estimating net benefits of high speed rail: How fit for purpose is Australia’s economic appraisal guidance?’ for the 2025 Australasian Transport Research Forum (see Publications) revisits and extends the ideas and recommendations in the earlier project in the context of high speed rail evaluation.
Consulting applications of cost-benefit analysis methods include: a CBA of the impact of a possible change to current export permit arrangements which favour domestic processing capacity for hazardous waste destined for recovery; evaluating a NSW regional city multi-level car park proposal; and, with Anthony and the Monash University Accident Research Centre, a CBA of the impact of the Australian New Car Assessment Program in reducing the road trauma burden.
[1] See https://www.atap.gov.au/sites/default/files/Handbook_of_CB_analysis.pdf for a revised 2006 edition of the handbook which retains these sentences and most of the original content.
“Cost-benefit analysis”, according to the Department of Finance’s 1991 Handbook of Cost-Benefit Analysis, which Phil authored as an analyst on staff, “is a method for organising information to aid decisions about the allocation of resources. Its power as an analytical tool rests in two main features: costs and benefits are each as far as possible expressed in money terms and hence are directly comparable with one another; and costs and benefits are valued in terms of the claims they make on and the gains they provide to the economy as a whole, so the perspective is a ‘global’ one rather than that of any particular individual, organisation or group”.[1]
Cost-benefit analysis methodology evolves with new learnings, technologies, problems and opportunities, while the core principles remain unchanged. In the early 2010s, Phil led the consultancy to scope a refresh of the National Guidelines for Transport System Management, which have become today’s Australian Transport Assessment and Planning (ATAP) guidelines.
For the former National Faster Rail Agency, Phil and Anthony undertook-an examination of opportunities to refine and enhance the project evaluation framework as it relates to ‘transformative’ transport infrastructure initiatives and notably faster passenger rail. These included adding distance-related values of travel time savings and a dependent development wider economic benefit to the appraisal toolkit, as well as updating, in a downward direction, the recommended project discount rate and aligning the appraisal period with a project’s asset cost-weighted length of life. The report was published on the agency’s website.
Phil’s research paper, ‘Estimating net benefits of high speed rail: How fit for purpose is Australia’s economic appraisal guidance?’ for the 2025 Australasian Transport Research Forum (see Publications) revisits and extends the ideas and recommendations in the earlier project in the context of high speed rail evaluation.
Consulting applications of cost-benefit analysis methods include: a CBA of the impact of a possible change to current export permit arrangements which favour domestic processing capacity for hazardous waste destined for recovery; evaluating a NSW regional city multi-level car park proposal; and, with Anthony and the Monash University Accident Research Centre, a CBA of the impact of the Australian New Car Assessment Program in reducing the road trauma burden.
[1] See https://www.atap.gov.au/sites/default/files/Handbook_of_CB_analysis.pdf for a revised 2006 edition of the handbook which retains these sentences and most of the original content.