IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/jbcacn/v2y2011i1n4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Benefit-Cost Analysis for Drinking Water Standards: Efficiency, Equity, and Affordability Considerations in Small Communities

Author

Listed:
  • Raucher Robert S.

    (Stratus Consulting Inc.)

  • Rubin Scott J

    (Public Utility Consultant)

  • Crawford-Brown Douglas

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

  • Lawson Megan M.

    (Stratus Consulting)

Abstract

The federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), as amended in 1996, enables benefit-cost analysis (BCA) to be used in setting federal drinking water standards, known as MCLs. While BCAs are typically conceived of as a tool to inform efficiency considerations by helping to identify MCL options that maximize net social benefits, in this paper we also illustrate how important equity and affordability considerations can be brought to light by suitably applying BCAs to drinking water regulations, especially in the context of communities served by relatively small water systems. We examine the applicability and relevance of health-health analysis (HHA), and provide an empirical evaluation of the risk tradeoffs that may be associated with the MCL established for arsenic. We find that the cost-associated risks may offset a nontrivial portion of the cancer risk reduction benefits attributed to the MCL (e.g., the additional adverse health impacts from the costs may be roughly half as large as the number of cancer cases avoided). This reveals the relevance of using the HHA approach for examining net benefits of MCLs in small drinking water utilities, and raises issues related to whether and how these cost-associated health risks should be considered in BCAs for drinking water standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Raucher Robert S. & Rubin Scott J & Crawford-Brown Douglas & Lawson Megan M., 2011. "Benefit-Cost Analysis for Drinking Water Standards: Efficiency, Equity, and Affordability Considerations in Small Communities," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-24, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:jbcacn:v:2:y:2011:i:1:n:4
    DOI: 10.2202/2152-2812.1004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/2152-2812.1004
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/2152-2812.1004?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keeney, Ralph L, 1994. "Mortality Risks Induced by the Costs of Regulations: Errata," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 320-321, May.
    2. Keeney, Ralph L, 1994. "Mortality Risks Induced by the Costs of Regulations," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 95-110, January.
    3. Backlund, Eric & Sorlie, Paul D. & Johnson, Norman J., 1999. "A comparison of the relationships of education and income with mortality: the national longitudinal mortality study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(10), pages 1373-1384, November.
    4. Chapman, Kenneth S & Hariharan, Govind, 1996. "Do Poor People Have a Stronger Relationship between Income and Mortality Than the Rich? Implications of Panel Data for Health-Health Analysis," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 51-63, January.
    5. Portney, Paul R & Stavins, Robert N, 1994. "Regulatory Review of Environmental Policy: The Potential Role of Health-Health Analysis," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 111-122, January.
    6. Lutter, Randall & Morrall, John F, III & Viscusi, W Kip, 1999. "The Cost-per-Life-Saved Cutoff for Safety-Enhancing Regulations," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(4), pages 599-608, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patrick Hofstetter & Jane C. Bare & James K. Hammitt & Patricia A. Murphy & Glenn E. Rice, 2002. "Tools for Comparative Analysis of Alternatives: Competing or Complementary Perspectives?," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(5), pages 833-851, October.
    2. Viscusi, W Kip & Aldy, Joseph E, 2003. "The Value of a Statistical Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates throughout the World," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 5-76, August.
    3. James K. Hammitt & Eric S. Belsky & Jonathan I. Levy & John D. Graham, 1999. "Residential Building Codes, Affordability, and Health Protection: A Risk‐Tradeoff Approach," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(6), pages 1037-1058, December.
    4. Broughel, James & Viscusi, Kip, 2017. "Death by Regulation: How Regulations Can Increase Mortality Risk," Working Papers 06864, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    5. Ralph L. Keeney, 1995. "Understanding Life‐Threatening Risks," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(6), pages 627-637, December.
    6. Moshe Yanovskiy & Yehoshua Socol, 2022. "Are Lockdowns Effective in Managing Pandemics?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-12, July.
    7. Viscusi W. Kip, 2019. "The Mortality Cost Metric for the Costs of War," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 25(3), pages 1-10, September.
    8. Georges Dionne & Paul Lanoie, 2002. "How to Make a Public Choice About the Value of a Statistical Life: The Case of Road Safety," Cahiers de recherche 02-04, HEC Montréal, Institut d'économie appliquée.
    9. Shamoun, Dima & Williams, Richard & Broughel, James & Calabrese, Edward, 2016. "Regulation under Uncertainty: Use of the Linear No-Threshold Model in Chemical and Radiation Exposure," Working Papers 04174, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    10. Luo, Ye & Zhang, Zhenmei & Gu, Danan, 2015. "Education and mortality among older adults in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 134-142.
    11. Peter Adams & Michael D. Hurd & Daniel L. McFadden & Angela Merrill & Tiago Ribeiro, 2004. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? Tests for Direct Causal Paths between Health and Socioeconomic Status," NBER Chapters, in: Perspectives on the Economics of Aging, pages 415-526, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Arber, Sara & Bote, Marcos & Meadows, Robert, 2009. "Gender and socio-economic patterning of self-reported sleep problems in Britain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 281-289, January.
    13. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    14. Jennifer Karas Montez & Kaitlyn Barnes, 2016. "The Benefits of Educational Attainment for U.S. Adult Mortality: Are they Contingent on the Broader Environment?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 35(1), pages 73-100, February.
    15. Zakharenko, Roman, 2018. "Dead men tell no tales: how the Homo sapiens became Homo economicus," MPRA Paper 90643, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Kahouli, Sondès, 2020. "An economic approach to the study of the relationship between housing hazards and health: The case of residential fuel poverty in France," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    17. Xianglong Xu & Lingli Liu & Manoj Sharma & Yong Zhao, 2015. "Smoking-Related Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviors, Smoking Cessation Idea and Education Level among Young Adult Male Smokers in Chongqing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, February.
    18. Hendi, Arun S. & Elo, Irma T. & Martikainen, Pekka, 2021. "The implications of changing education distributions for life expectancy gradients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    19. Mavrot, Céline & Potluka, Oto & Balzer, Lars & Eicher, Véronique & Haunberger, Sigrid & Heuer, Christine & Viallon, François-Xavier, 2025. "What evaluation criteria are used in policy evaluation research: A cross-field literature review," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    20. Jared C. Carbone & Snorre Kverndokk, 2016. "Individual Investments in Education and Health: Policy Responses and Interactions," CESifo Working Paper Series 6154, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:bpj:jbcacn:v:2:y:2011:i:1:n:4. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    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.