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Preliminary Benefit-Cost Assessment for 12th Session OWG Goals ... Bjorn Lomborg does analysis and then confronts conventional wisdom ... Refreshing!

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Preliminary Benefit-Cost Assessment for 12th Session OWG Goals

'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/Initiatives/CCC/CCC-owg12.cost-benefit-assessment-2014.pdf'

The Copenhagen Consensus has updated our benefit-cost assessment of UN Post-2015 Millennium Development Goals for the 12th session of the Open Working Group. The Copenhagen Consensus will present full, peer-reviewed economic evidence over the coming half year.

This report builds upon the similar analysis Copenhagen Consensus Center conducted on the 11th OWG document. Extensions of analysis beyond the 11th session report include:
• Ratings for most new targets
• Ratings for Focus Area 9: Promote sustainable industrialization
• Ratings for Focus Area 10: Reduce inequality within and among nations
• Ratings for Focus Area 14: Attain conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, oceans and seas
• As requested, the report also contains more explanation on many targets rated poor and suggestions for better wording of many targets.

The Copenhagen Consensus Center provides information on which targets will do the most social good relative to their costs. Some of the world’s top economists have assessed the targets from the 12th session Open Working Group document into one of five categories, based on economic evidence:

PHENOMENAL – Robust evidence for benefits more than 15 times higher than costs

GOOD – Robust evidence of benefits between 5 to 15 times higher than costs

FAIR – Robust evidence of benefits between 1 to 5 times higher than costs

POOR – The benefits are smaller than costs or target poorly specified (e.g. internally inconsistent, incentivizes wrong activity)

UNCERTAIN – There is not enough knowledge of the policy options that could reach the target OR the costs and benefits of the actions to reach the target are not well known

More than twenty of the world's top economists have made a preliminary assessment of the 212 targets in the 12th OWG session paper. They have done so in terms of which targets will do the most social good relative to their cost. While it is measured in dollars, this is not just about money - it also incorporates the costs and benefits of for instance health, welfare and environmental protection.

Authors:
Aart Kraay
Adele Morris
Alex Cobham
Amy Sopinka
Anil Deolalikar
Anil Markandya
Anke Hoeffler
Bjorn Larsen
Carolyn Fischer
Edward Glaeser
George Psacharopoulos
Guy Hutton
Hans-Peter Kohler
Ibrahim Kasirye
Irma Clots Figueras
Isabel Galiana
James Fearon
John C. Whitehead
John Gibson
Kamal Saggi
Keith Maskus
Kym Anderson
Laurence Chandy
Mark Rosegrant
Mary Hilderbrand
Michael Hanneman
Morten Jerven
Pamela Smith
Prabhat Jha

'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/Initiatives/CCC/CCC_UN-MDG-new-proposals-analysis-preliminary.pdf'

'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/Initiatives/CCC/final_un_ccc_2015.pdf'

'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/Initiatives/CCC/lomborg_ccc_owgpresentation_8may2014.pdf'