Preliminary Benefit-Cost Assessment for 12th Session OWG Goals
The Copenhagen Consensus has updated our benefit-cost assessment of UN Post-2015 Millennium Development Goals for the 12th session of the Open Working Group. The Copenhagen Consensus will present full, peer-reviewed economic evidence over the coming half year.
This report builds upon the similar analysis Copenhagen Consensus Center conducted on the 11th OWG document. Extensions of analysis beyond the 11th session report include:
• Ratings for most new targets
• Ratings for Focus Area 9: Promote sustainable industrialization
• Ratings for Focus Area 10: Reduce inequality within and among nations
• Ratings for Focus Area 14: Attain conservation and sustainable use of marine resources, oceans and seas
• As requested, the report also contains more explanation on many targets rated poor and suggestions for better wording of many targets.
The Copenhagen Consensus Center provides information on which targets will do the most social good relative to their costs. Some of the world’s top economists have assessed the targets from the 12th session Open Working Group document into one of five categories, based on economic evidence:
PHENOMENAL – Robust evidence for benefits more than 15 times higher than costs
GOOD – Robust evidence of benefits between 5 to 15 times higher than costs
FAIR – Robust evidence of benefits between 1 to 5 times higher than costs
POOR – The benefits are smaller than costs or target poorly specified (e.g. internally inconsistent, incentivizes wrong activity)
UNCERTAIN – There is not enough knowledge of the policy options that could reach the target OR the costs and benefits of the actions to reach the target are not well known
More than twenty of the world's top economists have made a preliminary assessment of the 212 targets in the 12th OWG session paper. They have done so in terms of which targets will do the most social good relative to their cost. While it is measured in dollars, this is not just about money - it also incorporates the costs and benefits of for instance health, welfare and environmental protection.
Author(s):
- Aart Kraay
- Adele Morris
- Alex Cobham
- Amy Sopinka
- Anil Deolalikar
- Anil Markandya
- Anke Hoeffler
- Bjorn Larsen
- Carolyn Fischer
- Edward Glaeser
- George Psacharopoulos
- Guy Hutton
- Hans-Peter Kohler
- Ibrahim Kasirye
- Irma Clots Figueras
- Isabel Galiana
- James Fearon
- John C. Whitehead
- John Gibson
- Kamal Saggi
- Keith Maskus
- Kym Anderson
- Laurence Chandy
- Mark Rosegrant
- Mary Hilderbrand
- Michael Hanneman
- Morten Jerven
- Pamela Smith
- Prabhat Jha
Related publications:
- Preliminary Benefit-Cost Assessment of Final OWG Targets
- Évaluation préliminaire des coûts-bénéfices pour les objectifs de la 12e session du GTO
- Using economic evidence to identify the most effective sustainable development goals and targets
- Preliminary Benefit-Cost Assessment for 11th Session OWG Goals