Limitations of Cost Benefit Analysis to support public debate: the case of public Transportation Decision-making in France

Sébastien Damart () and Bernard Roy ()
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Sébastien Damart: DRM - MLAB - Dauphine Recherches en Management - MLAB - DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Bernard Roy: LAMSADE - Laboratoire d'analyse et modélisation de systèmes pour l'aide à la décision - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is a tool used to evaluate the potential socio-economic impact of public investment choices. In many countries, particularly in France, this tool is used to support decision-making related to transportation infrastructure. In the context of questionable budgetary arbitrations, taking the multiple effects of the different choices into account makes choosing among transport infrastructure investments is a two-fold problem. On the one hand, public decision-makers have limited resources that they must use in the best way possible. On the other hand, when choosing among alternative investment projects, the decision-makers reveal the priority they have assigned to the different stakes, and these priorities must be perceived as legitimate. The French case illustrates the difficulty of striking the right balance between the expert knowledge produced by CBA methods and what is induced by the participation of various stakeholders to the decision making process. Based on a study of how French institutions make use of the CBA method, this paper aims at examining how the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) interacts with the practice of public debate and stakeholder participation in France today.

Keywords: Cost benefit analysis; transportation decision-making process; stakeholders participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-05-18
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