The Globalization of Cost-Benefit Analysis in Environmental Policy

Cost-benefit analysis -- the formal estimating and weighing of the costs and benefits of policy alternatives -- is a standard tool for governments in advanced economies. Through decades of research and innovation, institutions have developed in the United States, European Union, and other developed countries that examine and weigh policy alternatives as an aid to governmental decisionmaking. Lawmakers in the advanced economies have used cost-benefit analysis to evaluate core environmental and public health questions, such as urban air pollution control, water quality, and occupational safety. Yet despite its broad adoption in the industrialized world, most developing and emerging countries have not yet incorporated cost-benefit analysis into their policymaking process. Because these countries face significant limitations on financial resources and have less ability to shoulder inefficient rules, it is extremely important for their officials to determine which policies maximize net benefits for their societies. Cost-Benefit Analysis, Environmental Policy, and Emerging Economies examines how cost-benefit analysis can help developing and emerging countries confront the next generation of environmental and public-health challenges. Analysis in the book examines the growing reach of cost-benefit analysis; presents relevant case studies where cost-benefit analysis has been incorporated in the Americas, Africa, Middle East, and Asia; and includes a discussion on the conceptual and institutional issues that must be addressed when adopting cost-benefit analysis in developing and emerging countries. In part because governments in developing and emerging countries have not extensively used cost-benefit analysis, there has been only limited research and discussion of the practice and its potential. Most work that has been done is on the domestic or regional level, and has not been widely shared or distributed within the international academic or policy community. By providing both theoretical and practical discussion of this important new tool, this book makes a valuable contribution to the fields of environmental policy, development studies, and environmental law. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780199934386/toc.html Contributors to this volume - Alberto Alemanno is Associate Professor of Law at HEC Paris where he holds a Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law & Risk Regulation. Miriam Allam works for the Middle East and North Africa Governance Programme at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Marcos Amend has been the Executive Director of Conservacao Estrategica since 2003. Martha M.L. Barata is a professor and researcher at Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC), which belongs to the Health Research Institute (Fiocruz) of the Federal Health. Wai-Mun Chia is an Assistant Professor at the Division of Economics, NTU, and is Associate Editor to the Singapore Economic Review. Sarah Cordero Maria Damon is an Assistant Professor at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Jessica Donovan is the Acting Country Director for Conservation International in Liberia. Georgina Echaniz-Pellicer is an independent consultant on environmental law and education. Leonardo Fleck is a program officer for the Andes-Amazon Initiative at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation in Palo, CA. Veronica Garibay-Bravo is Director of Research on Air Quality at the National Institute of Ecology (INE). A.J. Glusman is a legal fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity. James K. Hammitt is professor of economics and decision sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, and visiting professor at the Toulouse School of Economics. Dr. Pawan Labhasetwar holds the positions of Scientist and Head, Water Technology and Management Division, CSIR-NEERI, Nagpur, India. Keith Lawrence is Senior Director of Conservation International's Seascapes program. Emilio Lebre La Rovere is Associate Professor of the Energy Planning Program, Coordinator of the Environmental Sciences Laboratory, and Executive Coordinator of the Center for Integrated Studies on Climate Change and the Environment at the Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research in Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPE/UFRJ). Anthony Leiman is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town's School of Economics. Michael A. Livermore is the executive director of the Institute for Policy Integrity and an adjunct professor of law at New York University School of Law. Kristina Mohlin is a PhD student in economics at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Gonzalo Moyano (LLM '09) is a Visiting Professor at the School of Law of the University of Chile, an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU Law, and a Nonresident Fellow for the Climate Finance Project at the Frank J. Guarini Center on ?Environmental and Land Use Law. Shahbaz Mushtaq is principal scientist and deputy director research at Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchment (ACSC), University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia. Orapan Nabangchang is a Faculty Member of the School of Economics, Sukhothai Thammatirat Open University in Thailand. Christopher Neyor Dr. Eduard Niesten directs Conservation International's Conservation Stewards Program. Amaro Pereira is an Economist and a Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics at Rio de Janeiro University. Euston Quah is Professor and Head of Economics at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. John Reid has worked in conservation since 1991, promoting the use of economics to address conservation challenges in the Amazon, Central America and the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Richard L. Revesz is dean and Lawrence King Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and faculty director of the Institute for Policy Integrity. Lisa A. Robinson is an independent consultant who specializes in the economic analysis of environmental, health, and safety policies and regulations. Leonora Rojas-Bracho is the Director General for Research on Urban and Regional Pollution at the National Institute of Ecology (INE) in Mexico. Jennifer S. Rosenberg is a legal fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity, where her work focuses on the economics underlying social welfare policy. Thomas Sterner is professor of environmental economics in Gothenburg, Sweden. Gretchen Stevens is a technical officer at World Health Organization (WHO) in the Mortality and Burden of Disease team. Jonathan B. Weiner is the William R. and Thomas L. Perkins Professor of law in the Law School, a professor of environmental policy in the Nicholas School, and a professor of public policy in the Sanford School, at Duke University. Eric Werker is Associate Professor and Marvin Bower Fellow in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. Jiunn-rong Yeh is Professor of Law at a National Taiwan University and Director of Policy and Law Center for Environmental Sustainability.