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The Evaluation of the Benefits of Basic Need Policies
Author(s) -
Scandizzo Pasquale L.,
Knudsen Odin K.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1239471
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , shadow price , production (economics) , economics , public economics , shadow (psychology) , microeconomics , psychology , mathematical optimization , social science , mathematics , sociology , psychotherapist
This paper presents a method to quantify social benefits of basic need policies by ( a ) relating their definition to the degree of fulfillment of accepted social standards, and ( b ) recasting the analysis of basic need projects within the general framework of shadow pricing in cost‐benefit analysis. An empirical application of this method shows that in poor countries, the attempt at upholding a standard of minimum food consumption for the poor would put substantial premiums on food production over and above world (or domestic supply) prices provided that the increased food supply results in sufficiently higher consumption for the undernourished.