In the quarter century since the United States launched a major regulatory effort in the environment, health and safety, much has been learned about regulation. Amidst a great deal of controversy, scholars and practitioners have accumulated a wealth of data about regulation and considerable insight into its costs and benefits and the types of risks with which it seeks to deal.

This book provides the reader with those new data and insights. The authors--economists and scientists--seek in various ways to make regulation more sensible and effective. They have much to criticize, but their purpose is constructive. While it is now clear to all, for example, that regulations have costs as well as benefits, the subtleties of measuring each are a crucial aspect of the new understanding.

Measuring and analyzing risk is another area of regulation where much new knowledge has developed. Here again, this book brings the reader up to date on what has been learned and on the limits of what is possible. The issue, one contributor argues, is an atmosphere of paranoia and neglect in which government attention focuses on minor risks to health and life while neglecting far more serious risks.

Risks, Costs, and Lives Saved will be an invaluable addition to the libraries of all who deal in regulation, be they government officials, lawyers, corporate officers, or politicians. In addition, the book can be readily understood by the general reader interested in this important topic.

Robert W. Hahn is a resident scholar at AEI.