Economic Analysis of Projects
Full Review

Reviewed by: Anand P. Bhayankaram, Senior Lecturer, Bradford Centre for International Development, University of Bradford, UK.
Review posted 30 November 2004
Review No. 27

CD-ROM Information

Content: Learning materials on economic analysis of development projects; includes tutorials and self-study learning resources.
Publication Date: 30 January 2001
Audience: Project designers mainly in national governments, consultants involved in project feasibility and project design, those who are new to project appraisal.

Size: 566 MB
Price: US$10
Manual needed: No
How to order:

Order by e-mail:
E-mail: adbpub@adb.org

Order by fax:
ADB Publications Unit
Fax: +632 636-2648

ADB CD-ROM webpage*

*This link takes you outside the ADBI website. Please use the back button to return to ADBI.org.

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Full Review

The purpose of economic analysis is to aid decision-making by enabling users to compare real costs and benefits of a project from society’s viewpoint. This CD-ROM contains tutorials on both principles and methodology of economic analysis for the Asian Development Bank’s projects.

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Content

The resources in the CD-ROM are organized in four sections (presented as four quadrants of a circle in the main menu).

Section 1: Economic analysis tutorials provide a step-by-step discussion on both principles and methodology of conducting economic analysis. This is organized in the form of 16 chapters. Each chapter starts with an introduction and then the material is developed in detail. In some cases, short video films are included for additional information or to provide appropriate real life examples. In many chapters, an end of chapter quiz is included for users to assess themselves.

Section 2: This section contains 12 examples of good practice highlighting various important issues. It also includes another sub-section titled case studies. These case studies are organized into five groups: agriculture and rural development, energy, transportation, social sectors, water supply and sanitation. In each sector, up to three case studies from selected ADB member countries are presented.

Section 3: This section is called reference library. It contains 15 chapters from ADB guidelines covering a number of issues related to economic analysis. On the whole, the materials in this CD-ROM provide a comprehensive and exhaustive coverage of economic analysis of projects, its rationale, how issues related to non-traded inputs, land, labor and so on need to be addressed in economic analysis, how social and environmental aspects can be integrated, and how various risks can be identified.

Section 4: This section contains 29 appendices of ADB’s guidelines where some of the issues are elaborated, in some cases with examples. This section also includes 21 practical exercises. Each exercise gives users some information and then specific tasks are provided for users to complete. From a learning resource point of view, this is possibly a very important and useful element of this CD-ROM.

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User

The tutorials and materials in this CD-ROM are designed for self-study by individual experts interested in project economic analysis. However, some familiarity with project design concepts and financial and economic analysis is essential to get the best out of it. The chapters are designed in such a way that advanced users can skip sections that they are already familiar with.

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User Friendliness

The design is fairly user-friendly. Users need to open the MS Word file that opens a PowerPoint presentation with active icons and navigation buttons. Each of the chapters in the tutorials section is further broken down into sections. At any time, users are able to return to the beginning of the chapter or to the beginning of the tutorials or to the main menu. This provides ease of navigation and also allows users to stop in between a chapter and continue later or move between different types of learning resources in the CD-ROM. Users has the choice to open a printer friendly version if interested in printing some files, such as those in best practice case studies.

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Interactivity

The various chapters in the tutorials are PowerPoint presentations where users control the timing and progression of material from one slide to another. This enables users to decide the pace at which they want to go through the material. The practical exercises section provides a greater degree of interactivity where users can take the given information and then work on various tasks related to specific learning outcomes.

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Sustainability

The content, though based on actual ADB projects and current practice, is fairly durable and can remain current for some number of years to come. Also, in terms of coverage, a broad range of issues and view-points including poverty impact, social and environmental factors, handling resettlement issues in economic analysis etc., have been included. This also contributes to sustainability of the material in this CD-ROM. However, the main challenge to durability of this CD-ROM is not from content but from its presentation. At the moment, the PowerPoint slides are current; however, consideration could be given to replacing those with digital audio and video segments.

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Instructions

No manual is needed: the CD-ROM is self-contained. The various instructions on screen, the help facility, and a comprehensive glossary are provided.

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Reviewer Comments

As a prominent user of economic analysis, ADB has developed considerable institutional expertise in conducting such analyses. ADB handbooks and guidelines have in the past provided a useful bridge between theory and practice. This CD-ROM continues this process and is itself a robust and fairly user-friendly learning resource. The rich materials such as case studies, good practice examples, and exercises all based on the real world, make this CD-ROM a very valuable and practical tool. However, there is scope for some critical comments.

1. Even though all basic terms and concepts are clearly and lucidly explained, to fully appreciate issues such as choice of discount rate or the calculation of shadow prices, some background or familiarity with economic analysis is essential.
2. The various case studies are based on information from the project proposals and appraisal documents taken from real world examples of ADB projects mostly from 1995-2000. This gives users a touch with reality but also makes someone using this CD-ROM today curious to know what actually happened with the original project, whether the project has been progressing as planned and whether the results such as ENPV or EIRR of the project are in line with projections made 8 or 10 years ago. A short commentary on such aspects would have made it even more interesting.
3. While the PowerPoint presentations are fairly user-friendly in terms of pace and navigation, sometimes, the animations such as swiveling effect on key words can be a bit annoying. There is nothing users can do until the swivel action is completed. At times, the key words chosen to perform such swivel action are not necessarily the most important key words that a user needs to remember about the material on the slide.
4. Though some short videos are included, the presentation is mainly of PowerPoint and thus oriented towards visual learners. Other types of learners and visually impaired users may not be able to benefit from the CD-ROM in its present form.
5. The main criticism about an economic analysis approach is that with globalization, openness, and adjustment, few countries continue to have distortions in market prices. This questions the need for estimating shadow prices. For a CD-ROM providing detailed tutorials and case studies on this topic, this is a very important question, but it has not been considered.
6. The methodology of project analysis as included in this CD-ROM is mainly oriented towards project planners in national governments. Whether and how this can be useful to NGOs or private sector organizations designing similar projects is something that has not been considered.

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