A process used to determine the efficiency of a project by estimating
each benefit and each cost. A project is said to be efficient if it generates more benefits than costs.
A system of subsidies and taxes instituted in the mid- 197Os. Refiners were taxed for each barrel of
price-controlled domestic oil they used, and the proceeds were
used to subsidize refiners for each barrel of imported and new
(more costly) domestic oil they
processed. The program increased the demand for imported
oil.
The satisfaction people can derive simply from knowing that something-the
Grand Canyon or Hoover Dam, for example-exists. It is
extremely difficult to measure existence values.
Once an action is taken, some physical effects may not be reversible -
the prior physical conditions cannot be restored. Such a
situation involves an irreversibility.
The verified quantity of a resource that can be recovered at current
prices and levels of technology.
The cost of an item, corrected for inflation. For example, if the price
of oil doubles while the prices of all other goods also double,
the real price of oil is unchanged. Decisions are generally
based on real prices, rather than the
uncorrected prices.
