Description: Over the past decades, considerable debate has emerged surrounding the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to analyze and make recommendations for environmental and safety regulations. Critics argue that CBA forces values on unquantifiable factors, that it does not adequately measure benefits across generations, and that it is not adaptable in situations of uncertainty. Proponents, on the other hand, believe that a well-done CBA provides useful, albeit imperfect, information to policymakers precisely because of the standard metrics that are applied across the analysis. Largely absent from the debate have been practical questions about how the use of CBA could be improved. Relying on the assumption that CBA will remain an important component in the regulatory process, this new work from Resources for the Future brings together experts representing both sides of the debate to analyze the use of CBA in three key case studies: the Clean Air Interstate Rule, the Clean Air Mercury Rule, and the Cooling Water Intake Structure Rule (Phase II). Each of the case studies is accompanied by critiques from both an opponent and a proponent of CBA and includes consideration of complementary analyses that could have been employed. The work's editors - two CBA supporters and one critic - conclude the report by offering concrete recommendations for improving the use of CBA, focusing on five areas: technical quality of the analyses, relevance to the agency decision-making process, transparency of the analyses, treatment of new scientific findings, and balance in both the analyses and associated processes, including the treatment of distributional consequences.

RFF Press is now an imprint of Earthscan. Click here to buy this book.

Description:

The two distinct approaches to environmental policy include direct regulation—sometimes called “command and control” policies—and regulation by economic, or market-based incentives. This book is the first to compare the costs and outcomes of these approaches by examining realworld applications. In a unique format, paired case studies from the United States and Europe contrast direct regulation on one side of the Atlantic with an incentivebased policy on the other. For example, Germany’s direct regulation of SO2 emissions is compared with an incentive approach in the U.S. Direct regulation of water pollution via the U.S. Clean Water Act is contrasted with Holland’s incentive-based fee system. Additional studies contrast solutions for eliminating leaded gasoline and reducing nitrogen oxide emissions, CFCs, and chlorinated solvents.

The cases presented in Choosing Environmental Policy were selected to allow the sharpest, most direct comparisons of direct regulation and incentive-based strategies. In practice, environmental policy is often a mix of both types of instruments. This innovative investigation will interest scholars, students, and policymakers who want more precise information as to what kind of "blend" will yield the most effective policy. Are incentive instruments more efficient than regulatory ones? Do regulatory policies necessarily have higher administrative costs? Are incentive policies more difficult to monitor? Are firms more likely to oppose market-based instruments or traditional regulation? These are some of the important questions the authors address, often with surprising results.

RFF Press is now an imprint of Earthscan. Click here to buy this book.

Description: Benefit-cost analysis of public policies designed to protect the environment and the public from environmental contaminants is growing in popularity, whether as the determinative criterion or as an ingredient in a broader assessment of a policy's desirability. Also growing, unfortunately, is the number of poorly executed analyses, which not only degrade the decisions they are meant to inform but cast doubt upon the usefulness of benefit-cost analysis as a decision tool.

Harrington, Krupnick, and Spofford display in this work an example of a properly conducted analysis. In the traditional manner of studies conducted at Resources for the Future, they proceed with extreme care and attention to detail in fashioning an appropriate blend of economic theory and innovative empirical analysis to estimate the social costs to a community arising from an outbreak of waterborne disease. The focus of their study is the outbreak of giardiasis---a common diarrheal disease---that raged through Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, just before Christmas 1983, striking 6,000 people ill and forcing some 75,000 residents to obtain an alternative source of drinking water, in some cases for as long as nine months.

The results of their study have obvious bearing on the benefits communities can expect to gain from federal and state drinking water standards, and on the decisions government officials face concerning public policies and projects designed to protect drinking water from contamination. Moreover, the theory that has been developed and the techniques that have been employed may be usefully applied to other areas, such as food safety, where the benefits of proposed regulatory programs are needed to inform public decisions, or where the costs of public health episodes, such as outbreaks of salmonellosis, are desired. This book also provides useful information for appraising the damages to surface-water and groundwater resources arising from the accidental release of hazardous substances.

Economics and Episodic Disease demonstrates the utility of combining economics with an appropriate dose of public health and natural science to provide a means for analyzing public policy issues involving a mix of marketed and nonmarketed goods and services.

Note: This book is available through ProQuest Books on Demand. However, it cannot be ordered via their web site until the spring of 2007. Until that time you may order the book directly from ProQuest by contacting them via phone (800-521-3042), fax (800-864-0019), or email (info@umi.com).

Description: Using natural resources as a model, Harrington presents a way of measuring the availability (or scarcity) of recreational resources by using surrogates for prices, which indicate what must be given in order to enjoy a recreational experience. The cost of travel to a recreational area or the cost of congestion caused by others using the same site are two of the variables he uses.

Harrington's approach allows policy makers, resource economists, recreation professionals, and others to characterize the availability of recreational resources in economic terms, providing a yardstick for comparison and analysis. Thus, decisions can be made about what investments are needed in new recreation resources. The authors notes, however, that additional data -- especially detailed participation information, visitation records for short intervals, and costs of congestion -- should be collected to test his methodology.

Description: A study of an air quality regulatory program in action. It describes and analyzes the approach by a typical state to the problem of controlling stationary source air pollution, with emphasis on the manner in which establishments comply with government regulations.