Macroeconomic efficiency of a small provincial public library

Key words

public library macroeconomic efficiency contingent valuation

Abstract

The macroeconomic efficiency of a public library in a small town near Warsaw has been calculated in the form of benefit/cost ratio. The benefits have been estimated by the method of contingent valuation of the library services and by the revealed preferences expressed by the costs of travel to and from the library as well as the costs of library deposit fees. The macroeconomic costs have been assumed equal to the microeconomic costs, except for labour costs which have been estimated as social opportunity costs of labour and therefore corrected downwards because of the persistent unemployment in town. The BCR ratio turned to be far below zero (depending on assumptions varied between 0.37 and 0.76). However only the direct benefits accruing to the library customers have been included.