COSTS AND BENEFITS THROUGH BUREAUCRATIC LENSES - EXAMPLE OF A HIGHWAYPROJECT

This article characterizes the perceptions of government bureaucrats a bout cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The observations arise after working with government officials on various projects and leading many execut ive seminars for government employees over the last decade on the prin ciples and practice of CBA. Government employees tend to adopt one of three conceptual lenses: Guardians, Spenders, and Analysts. These pers pectives differ sharply from one another, resulting in completely diff erent meanings to the words benefits and costs. The orientation of Gua rdians is to ''revenue-expenditure'' analysis, while Spenders are orie nted to ''constituency-support'' analysis. Analysts are oriented to st andard CBA. The differences in perspectives are illustrated using an e x ante CBA of a proposed toll highway project.