This primer highlights both the strengths and the limitations of benefit-cost analysis in the development, design, and implementation of regulatory reform.

This book discusses the current topic of Federal Government regulations increasingly assessed by asking whether the benefits of the regulation justifies the cost of the regulation.

Canada's federal regulatory policy contains mandatory requirements that departments and agencies, before sponsoring a regulation, must show that regulation is the best alternative and that the regulatory program is structured to maximise the gains to beneficiaries in relation to costs to Canadians. This document is a guide to the use of cost benefit analysis for demonstrating that a proposed regulation maximises net benefit. It reviews how cost benefit analysis fits into the regulatory process, provides a framework for choosing regulatory and non-regulatory alternatives, and describes the type and level of analysis that must be completed before preparing Regulatory Impact Analysis Statements. The guide ends with sections on evaluating impacts to business, consumer impact assessment, evaluation of risk and uncertainty, cost estimation, discounting, and evaluation of environmental quality & other public goods.

For the first time, a formal benefit-cost requirement plays an integral role in U.S. environmental policymaking, and in this volume, some of the nation's leading experts on environmental policy appraise the effects of President Reagan's Executive Order No. 12291. By considering how the Environmental Protection Agency has responded to 12291, these essays identify the limitations of conventional practices of benefit-cost analysis. Originally published in 1984. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.