Regional welfare weights

Pareto welfare criterion based on people’s willingness to pay for a project’s output is regarded by many as a narrow interpretation of improvement in social well-being. A broader opinion is that even though poorer individuals may be less able to pay for a particular benefit, they may obtain greater utility from it. In line with the broader opinion, this paper looks at country based welfare weights in the European Union with a special emphasis on relatively poor countries who became members recently. Welfare weights now have a high policy profile in the European Union in relation to distribution of funds between member and member to be countries. They can also be used in cost-benefit analysis to give priority to infrastructure projects in underprivileged areas