Commentary: Benefit-Cost Analysis

<p>SCOTT Farrow AND MICHAEL TOMAN make a perfectly reasonable case for using benefit-cost analysis to evaluate environmental programs I found myself playing the same role in I98 I , urging environmental groups to embrace this approach to decision making. They rejected my advice, saying that their opponents were using benefit- cost analysis to undermine environmental regulations and that Reagan’s Executive Order 12291 was intended to slow or stop regulation.</p

Is There a Role for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation?

The growing impact of regulations on the economy has led both Congress and the Administration to search for new ways of reforming the regulatory process. Many of these initiatives call for greater reliance on the use of economic analysis in the development and evaluation of regulations One specific approach being advocated is benefit- cost analysis, an economic tool for comparing the desirable and undesirable impacts of proposed policies.</p