IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/eme/rlwezz/s0193-5895(07)23010-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

An Aggregate Measure for Benefit–Cost Analysis

In: Research in Law and Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Richard O. Zerbe
  • Yoram Bauman
  • Aaron Finkle

Abstract

The Kaldor–Hicks (KH) criterion has long been the standard for benefit–cost analyses, but it has also been widely criticized as ignoring equity and, arguably, moral sentiments in general. We suggest the use of an aggregate measure (KHM) instead of KH, where M stands for moral sentiments. KHM simply adds to the traditional KH criterion the requirement that all goods for which there is a willingness to pay or accept count as economic goods. This addition, however, runs up against objections to counting moral sentiments in general and non-paternalistic altruism in particular. We show these concerns are unwarranted and suggest that the KHM criterion is superior to KH because it provides better information.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard O. Zerbe & Yoram Bauman & Aaron Finkle, 2007. "An Aggregate Measure for Benefit–Cost Analysis," Research in Law and Economics, in: Research in Law and Economics, pages 223-245, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:rlwezz:s0193-5895(07)23010-6
    DOI: 10.1016/S0193-5895(07)23010-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1016/S0193-5895(07)23010-6/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1016/S0193-5895(07)23010-6/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/S0193-5895(07)23010-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:rlwezz:s0193-5895(07)23010-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.