After meeting concerns

[Noel Padilla]

Dear All,

Hi. sorry for not being able to post sooner, but I had some problems accessing the site. I also had to spend overnight at the office Sunday to do some work on the oil spill and consequently, was not able to do work on the Task Forces' concerns.

Please be reminded of the commitments we made during the meeting, including the submission of financial reports and the data sets.

Let us also be reminded of Dr. Thanwa's adminition on making sure that the formula for normalizing the data using the CPI. In this regard, I came accross the Book "Cost Benefit Analysis Concepts and Practices" by Boardman Greenberg and Vining Weiner (this book by the way is the reference preferred by the Harvard Institute for International Development for its Economic Valuation Training Program) and on page 126 is an example on how to convert nominal values into real values for a specific base year. The formula, when converted into its simpliest form is: (Nominal Value or the value resulting from the valuation study)x(CPI of the desired base year or in our case CPI of 2005/CPI of the year the valuation study was done). That means that our formula is the right one after all.

Moreover, the book also says that the CPI is the most commonly used deflator (or means to normalize the data in our case) So twice we are right.

That's all for now. Cheers.

Noel Eusebio

[John Pernetta]

Dear Colleagues,

I am putting together the draft agenda for the next meeting and decided to see who if anyone has contributed to the e-forum. Congratulations Noel for posting one message, but gentlemen shame on you (and on me) for not contributing anything.

Please be so kind as to check your e-mails, examine the Excel spread sheet of data and make amendments before the meeting so that we can zip through the calculations or regional values at high speed.

I look forward to seeing you all in Batam and getting some solid work done on regional values.
Regards
John

[Khalid Abdul Rahim]

As economists, I think we should not only know how and when to use the formula...WE SHOULD UNDERSTAND HOW THAT FORMULA IS DERIVED.

Khalid

[Khalid Abdul Rahim]

Do expect rough seas in the South China Sea on your trip to Batam since this is monsoon season. But hopefully, in a week's time the seas will be calmer.