Maintenance is an often overlooked aspect of appraisal. The effective treatment of maintenance within an appraisal is, however, fundamental to informing the decision regarding the optimum investment strategy. This is because the nature of the maintenance strategy can have direct implications on...

This note address issues considering: what types of project typically have a very long life? Section 1: discusses the choice of appraisal period; Section 2: analyses the use of residual values; Section 3: discusses the pitfalls to avoid; Section 4: looks at the sensitivity of these matters to the...

This note focuses on the economic evaluation of more conventional infrastructure investments, and specifically on two types of projects which may result in significant economic restructuring - relocation of economic activities, generation of new activities, or changes in the way that current...

The objective of this note is to advise on an appropriate economic appraisal methodology that should be used for the assessment of Low Volume Rural Roads - that is roads upon which less than 200 motorized vehicles per day travel. Section 1 of this note sets out the reasons that Low Volume Rural...

The purpose of this brief note is to set out a checklist of issues which need to be considered when assessing the likely economic impact of regulatory reform. There is a great deal of relevant world literature, but a note of caution is appropriate when considering the transferability of...

This note deals with the extent to which, and the means by which, project level distributional analysis of benefits can be undertaken and how poverty impact indicators can be developed. Section 1 sets out the issues associated with using traditional cost benefit analysis for the appraisal of...

It is estimated that on a single night in January 2009, there were 643,067 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in America (The 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress 2010). The Obama administration recently published “Opening Doors,” the first federal plan to prevent and...

The authors examine the housing pathways of young people in the UK in the years 1999 to 2008, and consider the changing nature of these pathways in the run up to 2020. They employ a highly innovative methodology, which begins with the identification and description of key drivers likely to...

Twenty-one sources of error and bias in the appraisal of transport projects are identified. These relate to objectives, definitions, data, models and evaluation conventions. Objectives may be unclear, incompletely specified or inconsistent with appraisal criteria. Definitions of study areas and...