Robert J. Brent

Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Manchester
M.A. in Economics from the University of Manchester
B.A. in Economics from the University of Kent at Canterbury

• Cost-Benefit-Analysis
• Health Economics

Robert J. Brent is a Professor of Economics at Fordham University in New York and he is currently teaching Public Finance and Policy courses, and Statistics. He has lived and worked at Universities in the US, UK and Africa, and was Coordinator of the Strategic Planning and Governance Program at the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, Japan in 1998. His area of specialism is Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and he has written four text-books, edited a fifth, and has had published over two-dozen articles on the subject related to health, mental health, transport, education and agriculture, covering both Developed and Developing countries. In 2003 Robert was given a Fulbright Research award to evaluate HIV/AIDS interventions in Tanzania and he lived there for 7 months. He has been working on HIV/AIDS interventions ever since then. His published articles cover condoms, female education, voluntary counseling and testing and anti-retroviral drugs in Africa. His recently completed research involves putting a value on stigma prevention and evaluating ARVs, both studies related to older adults with HIV in NYC.

For the European Commission, DG Regional Policy, he is chair of the Scientific Committee advising on estimating the extent of spillover elasticities based on CBAs of projects as part of European Cohesion Policy.

For the Inter-American Development Bank, he is working with Paul Winters on writing guidelines for CBA at the IAB.

For the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, he is working with Mark Brennan and Stephen Karpiak on a CBA of Anti-Retroviral Drugs for the elderly with HIV/AIDS in New York City.

For the ANDRUS Children’s Center, he is working on the Labor Turnover Benefits and Costs of the Sanctuary Model.

For the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, he is working with Pat Brownell on estimating the benefits of preventing crimes against the elderly caused by family members in New York City.

Cost-Benefit Analyses of Dementia

• A cost–benefit analysis of hearing aids, including the benefits of reducing the symptoms of dementia
• Behavioral versus Biological Definitions of Dementia Symptoms: Recognizing that Worthwhile Interventions already Exist
• Estimating the monetary benefits of medicare eligibility for reducing the symptoms of dementia
• The Value of a Year's General Education for Reducing the Symptoms of Dementia

HIV/AIDS Cost-Benefit Analysis and other HIV/AIDS Papers

• Using the travel cost method to value visits and stigma in connection with ARV adherence in Uganda
• The Value of Reducing HIV Stigma
• Does female education prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa?
• A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Female Primary Education as a Means of Reducing HIV/AIDS in Tanzania
• An Implicit Price for a Daly for use in a cost-benefit Analysis of ARVS
• A Social Cost-Benefit Criterion for Evaluating Voluntary Counseling and Testing with an Application to Tanzania
• Economic Evaluations of HIV Prevention in Rich Countries and the Need to Focus on the Aging of the HIV-Positive Population
• Why Countries Have Both Subsidized and Free Condoms to Prevent HIV/AIDS: The Role of Stigma Mitigation

Mental Health Cost-Benefit Analysis Papers

• The Role of User Fees in the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Privatization with an Application to Inpatient Psychiatric Services in the US
• Tax Implications of Cost Shifting in Cost-Benefit Analysis in Mental Health
• A Simple Method for Converting a CEA into a CBA with an Application to Mental Health Expenditures
• Estimating the Effectiveness and Benefits of Alcohol Treatment Programs for Use in Economic Evaluations
• The Role of Public and Private Transfers in the Cost-Benefit analysis of Privatization with an Application to Hospital Psychiatric Services in the US

Other Published Papers

• Valuing the prevention of elder abuse
• Country Estimates of Social Discount Rates Based on Changes in Life Expectancy
• CFmHA Social Discount Rate
• Imputing Weights Behind Past Railway Closure Decisions with a Cost-Benefit Framework
• On the Estimation Technique to Reveal Government Distributional Weights
• Shadow Prices for a Physicians Services
• A Three Objective Social Welfare Function for Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Distinguishing Between Money Income and Utility Income in Cost-Benefit Analysis
• The Consumption Rate of Interest and the Numbers Effect
• The Numbers Effect and the Shadow Wage Rate in Project Appraisal
• Cost-Benefit Analysis, User Prices and State Expenditures in India
• Lagged Reactions in Short-run Estimates of Tax Shifting of Company Income and Sales Taxes in Kenya
• The Cost-Benefit Analysis of Government Loans
• Use of Distributional Weights in Cost-Benefit Analysis -A Survey of Schools
• A Cross-Section Framework for Estimating Jointly the Extent of Shifting of Sales and Company Income Taxes, with an Application to Kenya
• A New Approach to Valuing a Life
• An Axiomatic Basis for the Three Objective Social Welfare Function within a Poverty Context

Published Books

• Setting Priorities for HIV/AIDS Interventions
• Handbook of Research on Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Applied Cost-Benefit Analysis, Second Edition
• Cost-Benefit Analysis for Developing Countries
• Applied Cost-Benefit Analysis