The papers and discussions in this volume were presented in a conference held at the Brookings Institution in November 1963 to explore the problems of appraising the benefits that are likely to accrue from proposed public investment projects. To throw light on this question from several directions, papers were commissioned to deal with it in seven contexts: research and development expenditures, outdoor recreation projects, education programs, federal aviation expenditures, highway programs, urban renewal projects, and public health programs.

Designed primarily for economists and those interested in management economics who are not necessarily accomplished mathematicians, this text offers a clear, concise exposition of the relationship of linear programming to standard economic analysis. The research and writing were supported by The RAND Corporation in the late 1950s.
Linear programming has been one of the most important postwar developments in economic theory, but until publication of the present volume, no text offered a comprehensive treatment of the many facets of the relationship of linear programming to traditional...