Cost Benefit Analysis in Military Manpower and Training Research and Development: Current Practices

摘要

The goal of this study was to determine what current theory and practice in cost-benefit analysis (CBA) may have to offer toward improving the application of CBA tools in the Department of Defense, specifically their application to decision making in the human resources areas of manpower, personnel and training (MPT). A survey was made of the cost-benefit analysis literature to develop a taxonomy of generally accepted and widely used techniques and analytic precepts. The survey identified fourteen economic precepts and principles applicable to CBA; they were associated with two major foundations of CBA, financial analysis and welfare economics. Associated with financial analysis were the following seven elements; formulating the objective; specifying alternatives; determining the accounting stance; establishing decision criteria; discounting; conducting sensitivity analyses; formulating production functions. Associated with welfare economics were the following six elements; shadow pricing; establishing commensurability of costs and benefits; evaluating risk bearing; accounting for externalities; evaluating intangibles; measuring distributional effects. An additional element, conducting retrospective evaluations, was also included.