ABSTRACT
The concept of consumer surplus was argued by Jules Dupuit in 1844, when he pointed out that the users of roads and bridges in France enjoyed benefits in excess of the tolls they paid for the usage. The 1960s and 1970s saw the rapid development of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as numerous books and papers on the topic appeared, all trying to accomplish the deceptively simple objective of determining whether a proposed project's benefits exceeded costs and, if so, by how much. While the valuation theories and techniques were still undergoing refinement in the 1970s, the criterion by which proposed projects might pass was well established by the 1930s. Increasingly too, there have been calls for concern over the use of CBA in less developed countries, that the method may require some adjustments to accommodate and recognize differences between these countries and developed countries.
