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Objective or Multi-Objective? Two Historically Competing Visions for Benefit-Cost Analysis

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  • H. Spencer Banzhaf

Abstract

As they embraced benefit-cost analysis during the mid twentieth century, economists faced several challenges. One challenge was to reconcile two visions for the place of the economist in policy analysis, one limited to providing positive analysis for decision-makers, the other allowing normative judgments. This tension came to a crisis when, in the 1960s, the Water Resources Council introduced multi-objective benefit-cost analysis. The surrounding debate highlights the way philosophical differences can drive the technical details of policy analysis, the way political debates can overshadow academic ones, and the way even social scientists in a narrow subfield can profoundly misunderstand one another.

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  • H. Spencer Banzhaf, 2009. "Objective or Multi-Objective? Two Historically Competing Visions for Benefit-Cost Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(1), pages 3-23.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:landec:v:85:y:2009:i:1:p:3-23
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    1. Emery Castle & Maurice Kelso & Delworth Gardner, 1963. "Water Resources Development: A Review of the New Federal Evaluation Procedures," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 45(4), pages 693-704.
    2. Robert J. Kalter & Thomas H. Stevens, 1971. "Resource Investments, Impact Distribution, and Evaluation Concepts," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 53(2), pages 206-215.
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    5. Harberger, Arnold C, 1971. "Three Basic Postulates for Applied Welfare Economics: An Interpretive Essay," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 785-797, September.
    6. Gary D. Cobb, 1973. "Evolving Water Policies in the United States," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 55(5), pages 1003-1007.
    7. Otto Eckstein, 1957. "Investment Criteria for Economic Development and the Theory of Intertemporal Welfare Economics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 71(1), pages 56-85.
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. History of policy evaluation: a few questions
      by Beatrice Cherrier in History of Economics Playground on 2015-02-05 21:26:43

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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods

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