3 Any distributional effects identified should be explicitly stated and quantified as far as possible. At a minimum, this requires appraisers to identify how the costs and benefits accrue to different groups in society. If, for example, the costs of a government action fall largely upon one ethnic group this impact should be detailed in the appraisal.
4 It follows from this that a rigorous analysis of how the costs and benefits of a proposal are spread across different socio-economic groups is recommended. Where it is considered necessary and practical, this might involve explicitly recognising distributional effects within a project's NPV.