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How Well Does the U . S . Government Do Benefit-Cost Analysis ?
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Hahn, Robert W. Dudley, Patrick M. |
| Copyright Year | 2007 |
| Abstract | Over the past several decades there have been numerous critiques of the application of economic approaches to problems in public policy. Several books and articles have been written that criticize benefit-cost analysis and economic policy analysis more broadly (Ackerman and Heinzerling 2002). There have also been a number of defenses of economic approaches to analyzing important public policy issues. For example, Justice Breyer argues that government should set regulatory priorities differently so that more lives can be saved with a given level of expenditures (Breyer 1993). Sunstein (2002) takes a different approach but also supports the expanded use of benefit-cost analysis. The debate over the use of economic analysis as a tool in regulatory decision making is more than academic. Countries and states throughout the world are beginning to require extensive use of benefit-cost analysis and related tools as a way of informing key regulatory decisions and reforming the regulatory process. In the United States, for example, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)—the agency charged with regulatory oversight—is using benefit-cost analysis to both improve regulatory proposals and stimulate the implementation of new measures where the benefits exceed the costs (OMB 2002). The use of benefit-cost analysis has been particularly controversial in the area of environmental, health, and safety regulations (Adler and Posner 2000). According to government estimates, the costs associated with such regulations are substantial—on the order of $200 billion (in 1996 dollars) annually (OMB 2001). The benefits, which are harder to pin down, may be even larger, although the net benefits (or costs) of individual |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.appstate.edu/~whiteheadjc/eco3660/hahn_dudley.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.appstate.edu/~whiteheadjc/eco3660/Hahn_Dudley.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Academia (organization) Book Charge (electrical) Decision Making Ephrin Type-B Receptor 1, human Estimated Financial cost Large Public Policy Regulation of biological process Reporting Span Distance Twenty Five benefit |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
