Environmental Regulation, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and the Discounting of Human Lives
Abstract
Lives Probably the most vexing problem raised by the cost-benefit analysis of environmental regulation is how to deal with the fact that the loss of human life generally does not occur contemporaneously with the exposure to certain contaminants. In some cases, the environmental exposure produces a harm with a latency period whereas in others it produces harms to future generations. The article underscores the extent to which the cases of latent harms and harms to future generations are analytically distinct, even though they have generally been treated as two manifestations of the same problem. In the case of latent harms, one needs to make intra-personal, intertemporal comparisons of utility, whereas in the case of harms to future generations what is needed is a metric against which to compare the utilities of individuals living in different generations. Thus, the appropriateness of discounting would be resolved differently in the two contexts.Download Info
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Paper provided by Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics in its series Berkeley Olin Program in Law & Economics, Working Paper Series with number qt57q8284f.Length:
Date of creation: 01 Mar 1999
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:cdl:oplwec:qt57q8284f
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Kuchler, Fred, 2001. "Valuing the Health Benefits of Food Safety: A Proceedings," Miscellaneous Publications 33550, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
- Thomas DeLeire & Christopher Timmins, 2008. "Roy Model Sorting and Non-Random Selection in the Valuation of a Statistical Life," NBER Working Papers 14364, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Marquez, Pablo, 2006. "Cost Benefit Analysis, Value Of A Statistical Life And Culture: Challenges For Risk Regulation," MPRA Paper 2632, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Feb 2007.
- Hofmann, Ekkehard & von Wangenheim, Georg, 2002. "Trade secrets versus Cost Benefit Analysis," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 511-526, December.
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