Biofuels: Linking Support to Performance

This paper summarizes and organizes presentations in the Round Table's presentations and discussions, draws conclusions when possible, and points out where opinions differ. It is divided in three main sections. First, the presentations and discussions provided an overview of the advances, promises, and pitfalls of current research on the economic impacts of investments in transport infrastructure. a first recurring theme was that advances in the analysis of "wider impacts" were acknowledged, but their transferability across projects was questioned, so there are "no simple rules" for generalizing results. Moreover, routine analysis is difficult because of shortcomings both in data availability and in the analytical framework. This theme is developed in some detail in section two. A second recurring issue was the major differences in the approach to transport project appraisal between countries. The impact of economic appraisal on policy decisions varies greatly from one region to another and this has consequences for the way wider economic impacts might be taken into account.