PPA 220B Checklist for Benefit/Cost Prospectus
(Your Grade Will Be Based Upon How Well You Satisfy the Items on This List.)

OVERALL

• There is a cover page with title, your name, and date handed in.  __
• The four major sections in your paper are marked by roman numerals and heading titles. __
• The first paragraph of each section should contain an introductory paragraph that briefly describes what is in it.  __
• Sub-sections within your paper contain headings. __
• There are no spelling errors. __
• There is a minimum of grammatical errors. __
• Transitions between paragraphs are smooth. __
• One inch margins, 11 font, and double-spaced. __
• For other style issues use the APA style given in Hacker's A Pocket Style Manual. __
• When an outside reference is cited for the first time, give last name(s) and then year in parenthesis
• Include a list of references at end of paper. __
• The audience for your paper is an educated layperson and explanations are done appropriately. __
• Turn in a disk copy of paper in Microsoft Word format. __

I. INTRODUCTION (1-2  pages)

• The first paragraph contains a one-sentence description of the specific policy change you will analyze. __
• The analysis of the policy change can be completed by one person within the context of a Master's thesis. __
• There is a description of status quo or base case situation that the proposed policy change will be compared to in generating the appropriate benefits and costs. __
• The remainder of your introduction motivates the reader to continue by placing your question in the context of current events, and public policy and administration studies.  Why have some suggested that your policy change will be a "good" thing?  Why have some suggested that your policy change will be a "bad" thing? __
• Cite at least two popular newspaper or magazine articles that point out the populist importance of your proposed policy change, or some of the benefits/costs it may generate.  Use search engines like http://www.sacbee.com/ , http://www.latimes.com/ , and/or http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ .
• The last paragraph contains a description of what will be contained in the remaining five sections. A one-sentence description for each section is appropriate. __

II. LITERATURE REVIEW (2 pages)

• Contains a description of at least two other pieces of academic research in the area. __

            You can find this research by searching ECONLIT  which is accessible from CSUS or a SacLink account.    
            Search using keywords that include "benefit," "cost," and your policy topic.  Be sure that the articles you choose
            use some form of benefit/cost analysis.  I also have a disk that contains a bibliography of benefit/cost studies that I will share with you.

• Divide your literature review into two themes (or subsections).  The first is what can be learned from the academic research that applies to your proposed  study (i.e., what is done right and what is can be improved upon in the pieces of research you examined).  The second is the conclusion/findings of these studies and how you expect them to compare to yours. __

III. METHODOLOGY (5-6 pages)

• This section should contain at least three subsections: (A) description of overall proposed method, (B) specific proposed method for calculating the stream of costs, and (C) specific proposed method for calculating the stream of benefits.  __
• The overall description of proposed method - Section A - should introduce the method of benefit/cost analysis in terms of Kaldor/Hicks efficiency and economic thought.  This material should come out of Chapter 4 -14 in the FugWil book (see pp. 156-161). __
• Section A should discuss who has standing in your study (Chapter 6); stress incremental, aggregate, and present value nature of benefits/costs (Chapters 7, 8, 9, an 11); and describe the time horizon of study, how any risk and uncertainty will be handled (Chapters 13 and 14), and the decision criteria to be used - is it NPV of stream of benefits/costs, cost effective analysis, or something else? (Chapter 10). __
• Section A should end with a table that lists the costs and benefits that will be accounted for in study.  The table should be two columns wide with column 1 labeled "costs" and column two labeled "benefits".  Each row will then have a brief one sentence description of a cost and a one sentence description of a benefit.  The number of rows will correspond to maximum number of benefits or costs. __
• Section B should go into specific detail on the proposed method(s) on how to calculate each of the expected costs.  Will they be based upon previous expenditure values on similar items?  Will there be the need for a whole new estimation?  Who will be contacted for these values?  Are loss of human life or quality of human life an issue; How will this be handled? (see Chapter 21).  Will there be a need to discount stream of costs to present? __
• Section C should go into specific detail on the proposed method(s) on how to calculate each of the expected benefits.  This will likely require more detail than costs.  I suggest a subsection for each proposed benefit that contains a brief overview of how they will be calculated and who needs to be contacted to get specific data.  Be specific on whether using market valuation (Chapter 17), contingent valuation (Chapter 18), travel cost method (Chapter 19), hedonic pricing (Chapter 20), or choosing to not value a non-market occurrence (Chapter 21) and how you propose to implement these. __

VI. CONCLUSION (1 page)

• Describe how you will use the data described above to make a specific recommendation on your proposed policy change? __
• What do you anticipate the recommendation to be? __
• Describe any potential problems you are likely to encounter when implementing your proposed study.  __
• Is there potential here for a Master’s Thesis? __

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