Methods of Project Analysis: A Review

Abstract

Alternative project selection procedures for less developed countries are compared and evaluated. Substantive differences among alternative procedures are in large part dependent upon differing assumptions about the economic environment in which the investment decisions are being made. In principal, since project selection procedures are based on theoretical welfare economics, most project selection procedures are equivalent. Thus, one of the basic results of the project selection procedures is that, in a perfectly competitive economy, allocation of resources on the basis of market prices of goods and factors results in Pareto optimality for a given income distribution. In other words, market prices of goods and factors would equate the marginal social cost of producing with the marginal social value of using the relevant goods or factors. However, to the extent the selection procedures operate where the perfectly competitive paradigm does not hold, market prices will no longer indicate the social costs and benefits of using and producing different commodities. The existence of trade distortions seriously interferes with the perfectly competitive paradigm. Judgments must be made regarding future trade control systems.

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