beneficiocosto

Beneficiocosto is a term used in economics and public policy to denote the systematic evaluation of the benefits and costs associated with a project, policy, or regulation. The aim is to determine whether the expected benefits justify the costs and to compare alternatives.

The typical beneficiocosto process includes several steps: defining the problem and the evaluation boundaries; identifying all relevant costs and benefits; measuring and, where possible, monetizing those effects; selecting an appropriate time horizon; discounting future values to present value; and computing decision metrics such as net present value (NPV) and the benefit-cost ratio (BCR). In some analyses, internal rate of return (IRR) or equivalent metrics are reported. Analyses may adopt a societal perspective, or another stakeholder viewpoint, and usually include sensitivity analyses to assess how results change with key assumptions.

Monetization is central but challenging; non-market effects such as environmental quality, health outcomes, cultural impacts, and equity considerations may be included qualitatively or through supplementary methods, such as multi-criteria decision analysis, to support judgment.

Applications include evaluation of infrastructure projects, environmental regulation, public health and social programs, education policies, and other public-sector investments. The beneficiocosto approach informs prioritization and funding decisions by highlighting where benefits exceed costs and by how much.

Limitations of beneficiocosto include difficulties in valuing non-market goods, subjectivity in discount rates and valuation, data gaps, uncertainty, and concerns about distributional effects and fairness. Critics also caution against reducing complex social outcomes to monetary terms alone.

In Italian usage, beneficiocosto is closely related to, and often used interchangeably with, analisi costo-beneficio (ACB).