The files here are intended for the use of students in C&RP 763 at OSU.

Most documents are available in two forms: as hypertext (HTML) and PDF files. The PDF files — which are correctly formatted — may require the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The HTML versions are produced by an automatic translator: if anyone notices that the symbols seem incorrect (for example, that they don’t match those in the PDF files, or if the notation changes without explanation from the one used in class) I’d appreciate being told, especially if you are viewing the material on a Macintosh.

Contents: Autumn 2007

• Syllabus: HTML or PDF versions.

Announcements

• TEST-OUT: A test-out for anyone wishing to place our of the course will be held on Tuesday Sept 25 during class. Come to my office at 11:25 am and we’ll find a place for you to work. The test-out will be closed-book; bring a calculator.

Class Handouts

• Philadelpha CCCC map (print after doing View -> Fit Width, and in the Acrobat print dialog, check Current View).
• Table of anti-derivatives
• Willig table
• Domencich and McFadden handout
• Travel Cost model handout.
• Answers to last year’s mid-term exam
• Answers to this year’s final exam

Ohio Hub Project

Here are some documents for a much more recent transportation project: a high-speed rail line to connect Ohio cities and other parts of the Lake Erie region. More material is available at http://www.ohiohub.org

• Project Final Draft Report ( PDF , 311 pages); same document 2-up ( PDF )
• Appendices to the Final Draft Report ( PDF )
• Cleveland–Columbus–Cincinanti study ( PDF , 56 pages) ; 2-up ( PDF )
• Ohio Economic Analysis ( PDF , 199 pages); 2-up (PDF )

Philadelphia CCCC Report

Here are sections of the analysis of the proposed Philadelphia Center City Commuter Connection, in PDF format. They are also availalable in the Exchange folder in the CRP 763 area of the Homework drive. Once you start the Acrobat Reader, you’ll want to rotate counter-clockwise to see it correctly.

• Final EIS . This is the main report.
• Technical Supplement 1 . Analysis of alternatives. This is where the choice is narrowed down to the CCCC or the Null Case.
• Technical Supplement 2 . Analysis of projected rail traffic
• Technical Supplement 4 . Computer printout of year-by-year impacts.

Lecture Notes, etc

Note on the Problem Sets

The problem sets ( PDF version here)contain several problems which required that you “run the regression” and then use the results to do things like compute benefits according to one method or another. This was from a version of the class where students were required to get their hands dirty with data. Obviously, we’re not doing this now. The upshot is that you are not responsible in 763 for the details of running regressions — though you should certainly understand how to do this from 771 — and obviously you will not be asked to compute regression answers in an examination. You should understand, however, how to interpret a set of regression results: that is, assuming that someone else has done the dirty work, you should be able to work with those answers (regression estimates).  

Supplementary Readings

In June 2000 there was a special issue of the Journal of Legal Studies devoted to philosophical and legal aspects of cost-benefit analysis. Here are links to those papers (PDF only: the links are on a part of the site which will not be accessible outside the OSU domain). Note that the material in these papers is entirely optional; and we will not be covering it in the course.

If you get a dialog asking for authorization to connect to the facweb site, and just entering your user name in the User name field doesn’t work, try entering knowlton\your_user_name (ie the name you use when logging on to the lab computers); same for the Password. If you are not on the KSOA network you may be asked for a specific Domain in a separate input field: the answer here is knowlton.

• Martha Nussbaum, The Costs of Tragedy: Some Moral Limits of Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Robert Frank, Why is Cost-benefit Analysis so Controversial?
• John Broome, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Population
• Henry Richardson, The Stupidity of the Cost-Benefit Standard
• Lewis Kornhauser, On Justifying Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Cass Sunstein, Cognition and Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Matthew Adler and Eric Posner, Implementing Cost-Benefit Analysis When Preferences are Distorted
• Richard Posner, Cost-benefit Analysis: Defintiion, Justification and Comments on Conference Papers