1996/04/12 by Kenneth J. Arrow, Maureen Cropper, George C. Eads +8 · 2 citations
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Environmental and Social Impact Assessments #Environmental Justice and Health Disparities #Risk Perception and Management
paper · doi:10.1126/science.272.5259.221
openalex publication_date 1996/04/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Benefit-cost analysis can play an important role in legislative and regulatory policy debates on protecting and improving health, safety, and the natural environment. Although formal benefit-cost analysis should not be viewed as either necessary or sufficient for designing sensible public policy, it can provide an exceptionally useful framework for consistently organizing disparate information, and in this way, it can greatly improve the process and, hence, the outcome of policy analysis. If properly done, benefit-cost analysis can be of great help to agencies participating in the development of environmental, health, and safety regulations, and it can likewise be useful in evaluating agency decision-making and in shaping statutes.