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Due Date: 23:59 PM, Friday 30 August (Brisbane time)
1. Plagiarism detection software is used. You are NOT allowed to submit any file more than once. This means you cannot check your plagiarism-matching scores. I strongly advise you not to attempt to collude or plagiarise in any way. Do not think re-paraphrasing is acceptable because many academic misconduct cases are rooted in this attitude.
2. Each student will be provided a set of values for X1 – X34, highlighted in yellow in this document. Please download file named “CBA_2024_Data.xlsx”, and follow the instruction in that file to get your data. If you are enrolled after August 2023, please email Unit Coordinator ([email protected]) for your data.
Online submission requirement
1. One Excel CBA spreadsheet. Please name your files as Nxxx-CBA.xlsx where xxx is your student number.
2. One Word or pdf file providing answers to questions 1 – 7. Please name your files as Nxxx-CBAReport.docx (or pdf) where xxx is your student number.
3. One short video clip (with your face in the video) showing your presentation to question 8.
Case description:
In response to recent developments in recognising the importance of multicultural society and the Indigenous community in Australia, the local government is interested in building an Indigenous and Multicultural Art and Business Precinct (hereinafter called Precinct) in the town. The proposed location is in the Botanic Garden.
You have been advised to employ a real social discount rate of X1. Preliminary best cost estimates include $X2 in year 0 for initial planning (including land acquisition), $X3 in year 1 for design, and $X4 in year 2 for construction. The price contingency for all construction costs is X5. The maintenance and ongoing costs are estimated at $X6 per annum starting in Year 3 with a real annual growth rate of X7.
The project will cause an adverse effect on the Botanic Garden. Environmental economists have calculated the loss per year as $X8. The Precinct will have X9c parking spaces, and all are free for people visiting the Botanic Garden and the Precinct for the first six years (year 3 to year 9 of the project year). Free car parks will bring more customers to food and beverage businesses in the Botanic Garden. From Year 10 onwards, it is estimated that each parking space can generate a net revenue of $X9a per week. Assuming the occupancy rate of X9b for these parking spaces is reasonable. Also, assume that the real growth rate for the revenue of each parking space is 0.5% per year (starting from Year 10).
Due to this new infrastructure facility, the prices of houses and townhouses near the project site will increase from the current level of $850,000 to around $X10a. Similarly, the prices of apartments near the project site will increase from the current level of $580,000 to around $X10b. As the property market is responsive to infrastructure facilities, the price impacts start as soon as the construction begins. This will affect X11a houses and townhouses and X11b apartment units. However, only X12% of the houses and apartments are currently occupied by owners, while the remaining is supplied to the rental market. Rents are expected to increase on average by $X13 per week.
The project needs to increase the number of lanes on the existing main road, imposing costs of air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and noise on the local population. The costs associated with these impacts are below:
|
Air pollution and Greenhouse gas (per vehicle) |
Noise (per vehicle) |
Private vehicle |
$X14 |
$X16 |
commercial vehicle |
$X15 |
$X17 |
Due to increased traffic, the prices of properties (X18 houses) along the main road are expected to decrease by $X19 and the impact starts immediately when construction starts. However, due to the widened road, it takes faster to go to the City centre, which generates benefits for owners of X20 vehicles, including X21 private cars and X22 commercial vehicles. The town population growth will be X23 per annum over the next 30 years. Using the Department of Transport’s forecasting model, annum vehicle growth is related to population growth. This relationship can be linear or compound (i.e. X24) and has a coefficient of X25 per one % increase in the local population. Road user benefits per vehicle for Travel Time, Vehicle Operating and Accident Savings will begin at the beginning of Year 3 and continue until the end of the appraisal period and are given below:
|
Travel Time Savings (per vehicle) |
Vehicle Operating Savings (per vehicle) |
Accident Savings (per vehicle) |
Private Car |
$X26 |
$X28 |
$X30 |
Commercial Vehicle |
$X27 |
$X29 |
$X31 |
The ongoing maintenance cost on the bigger road will increase by $X32 from Year 3 onwards. Other benefits go to owners of existing and future cafe and art and show businesses in the local community. These other benefits are worth $X33, starting from Year 3 to Year 30, with a real growth rate of X34. The Precinct will have an asset life of 100 years and will continue to operate after the evaluation period. According to the Government guideline, the residual value of the Precinct should be estimated using the Initial Construction Cost method with the reduction factor of 50%. This residual value is to be placed in the final year of the benefit side of the evaluation.
Tasks and Questions
1. Use the data provided and submit a final Excel spreadsheet using a CBA template (available on Canvas) (maximum 6 marks – AOL KS1.2). You must (1) place your data in the “Data” sheet, (2) use formulas when working out costs (benefits) in relevant “Costs” or “Benefits” sheets, and (3) in these formulas, cell references of data values from the “Data” sheet in instead of “manually typing in” the values. Doing this avoids typing errors.
2. Complete the Summaries sheet which present the distributions of total present values of costs and benefits across key cost and benefit items, direct and indirect impacts, and market and non-market impacts (maximum 4 marks- AOL KS1.2).
3. Use the table in Question 2 to answer two following questions:
a) How does the exclusion of indirect impacts affect the project’s NPV? (maximum 1 mark - AOL KS1.1)
b) How does the exclusion of non-market impacts affect the project’s NPV? (maximum 1 mark - AOL KS1.1)
4. When including all costs and benefits as in Question 2’s table, answer two following questions:
a) What are three cost items and three benefit items do you think will have the most impact on the net present value of the project? Justify your answers. (maximum 6 marks - AOL KS1.1)
b) Take a more pessimistic, what variable(s) in the cost and benefit sides would you like to vary their value (i.e. to change or to modify with various values) in order to assess the sensitivity of the NPV concerning these variables? Justify your answer. (maximum 4 marks - AOL KS1.1
5. Use the information in the “Sensitivity Analysis” worksheet to answer the following questions
a) Discuss the meaning of the calculated value of a break-even discount rate (maximum 1 marks - AOL HO2.1)
b) Discuss the purpose of conducting this type of sensitivity analysis with respect to a range of discount rates (maximum 2 marks – AOL HO2.1).
6. What are other variables that you should consider in conducting sensitivity analysis to avoid possible underestimation and overestimation problems? Justify your answers. (maximum 3 marks - AOL KS1.1)
7. Double counting of benefits and/or costs can happen in CBA. Can you identify any potential double-counting problems in this project? Justify your answers. (Maximum 2 marks - AOL KS1.2)
8. Video presenting an executive summary (summarising key findings of your work). The video submitted must show your face in the entirety of your presentation (simply use Zoom to record your video). If your face is not shown in the video, your submission is not eligible for marking. Maximum 3 minutes.