The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to the concept of user cost and its determinants. Particular attention is given to the influence of taxation. The concept of user cost relates to the rental, the rate of return to capital, that arises in a profit maximising situation in which...

This paper sets out the alternative approaches to the public sector discount rate and explains the assumptions involved. There are two main ways of thinking about the discount rate. First, the social opportunity cost of capital approach (SOC) defines the discount rate as the rate of return that...