Cost Benefit Analysis of Private Sector Environmental Investments: A Case Study of the Kunda Cement Factory

Considers the case of a cement plant in Estonia and tries to answer the question: how do the (private) costs of curbing pollution compare to the (social) benefits to the population? While it is often easy to estimate costs, it is exceedingly difficult to capture the benefits, especially in developing and transition countries. This pioneering empirical study concludes that in the case of Kunda Cement, the social benefits exceed private costs by a margin wide enough to justify the environmental investment in economic terms. [author]