Dimensions: 8.75'' x 5.75'' 18 pages AEI Press  (Washington) Publication Date: January 1996 Paperback ISBN: 0844770663

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The growing impact of regulations on the economy has led both Congress and the administration to search for new ways of reforming regulation. One of the central issues in the debate is the use of benefit-cost analysis in environmental, health, and safety regulation. In an effort to develop a consensus view on that controversial subject, the American Enterprise Institute, the Annapolis Center, and Resources for the Future cosponsored a meeting of many of the leading economists in the field. This primer highlights the set of consensus principles that emerged from that meeting. It should be required reading for policymakers who wish to understand both the strengths and the limitations of benefit-cost analysis in the development, design, and implementation of regulatory reform.

Kenneth J. Arrow is the Joan Kenney Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University. Maureen L. Cropper is a principal economist at the World Bank, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, and a senior fellow at Resources for the Future. George C. Eads is a vice president for Charles River Associates, Inc. Robert W. Hahn is a resident scholar at AEI, a research associate at Harvard University, and an adjunct professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University.

Lester B. Lave is University Professor and the Higgins Professor of Economics in the Graduate School of Industrial Administration and professor of engineering and public policy in the College of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Roger G. Noll is the Morris M. Doyle Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Economics at Stanford University. Paul R. Portney is president of Resources for the Future. Milton Russell is professor of economics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the director of the Joint Institute for Energy and Environment, and a collaborating scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Richard Schmalensee is the Gordon Y. Billiard Professor of Economics and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. V. Kerry Smith is the Arts and Sciences Professor of Environmental Economics at Duke University and a university fellow for the Quality of the Environment Division at Resources for the Future. Robert N. Stavins is professor of public policy and chairman of the Environment and Natural Resources Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.