The social appraisal of transport infrastructure
Transport infrastructure contributes to social welfare when a basic condition
is fulfilled: social benefits should exceed social costs. It has been common to see
infrastructure with a biased perspective leading to the belief that the more, the bigger
and the more advance technologically the better. The concept of opportunity cost of public
money does not seem to be understood by many who take crucial decisions on the
construction of new large projects. In this paper, the economic evaluation of projects is
defended as a way to avoid the construction of socially unprofitable projects.
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