This book is a critique of the procedures used by the federal government to justify and evaluate public works in the water resource field. The methods of measuring benefits and costs that have been devised for projects in the fields of flood control, irrigation, navigation, and electric power are examined from the point of view of the theory of welfare economics. The major sources of bias are identified, and suggestions are made to improve the evaluation practices.

The author concludes that benefit-cost analysis could become a reliable test for measuring the effect of projects on economic welfare, but that the present procedures overstate benefits and understate costs to such an extent that the economic justification of many of the projects in the present program must be called into question. The suggestions for changes which are made are designed to raise the standards of project evaluation to a point where the public and the Congress can have some assurance that the projects will raise the economic welfare of the country.