Cost-Benefit Analysis as a Commitment Device

摘要

In earlier-generation debates about cost-benefit analysis, proponents of cost-benefit analysis repeated a simple argument: agencies need to have some method for deciding whether and how stringently risks should be regulated. Critics of cost-benefit analysis never converged on a satisfactory competitor, but their repeated slogan-that cost-benefit analysis means deregulation-continues to resonate. The reason cost-benefit analysis has mostly served to constrain regulation is because administrations and agencies use cost-benefit analysis to calibrate regulation. But snapshot calibration can only constrain, rather than compel, regulation.