In November 2023, environmental economists and the Environment Agency estimated that coastal flooding and erosion could cause over £1.5 billion in damages annually to infrastructure and homes along the UK coastline by 2050. One proposed policy response is 'managed realignment'—deliberately breaching old concrete sea walls to flood low-lying farmland, creating natural saltmarsh buffers and wetland habitats that absorb wave energy.
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) when deciding whether or not to invest in large-scale managed realignment coastal defence schemes.
378 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Economics 1.8 The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention in markets, covering 1.8.1 How markets and prices allocate resources, 1.8.2 The meaning of market failure, 1.8.3 Public goods, private goods and quasi-public goods, 1.8.4 Positive and negative externalities in consumption and production, 1.8.5 Merit and demerit goods, 1.8.6 Market imperfections, 1.8.7 Competition policy (A-level only), 1.8.8 Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation of markets (A-level only), 1.8.9 Government intervention in markets, and 1.8.10 Government failure. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.