Ethical Benefit-Cost Analysis as Art and Science - Ten Rules for Benefit-Cost Analysis

Benefit–cost analysis (BCA) is commonly viewed either as a mechanical tool for making decisions or as a failed technique of decision-making that avoids moral, interactive, and ethical components. Properly situated, it is neither. Benefit–cost analysis is an art form that can produce useful with the potential to improve decision-making. To understand this we must consider current criticisms and come to another way of looking at BCA. This chapter contributes to the process of attaining greater uniformity of principles and standards within BCA. Practitioners and critics alike are sometimes unclear about precisely what they mean when they speak of BCA, as there is no one uniform method or concept. Toward this end, I will briefly consider the benefit–cost principle, the considerations that lie behind it, and the criticisms that have been made of it in light of these considerations. In response to these criticisms, and to establish what BCA is more clearly, I then describe a version of BCA that I call ethical benefit–cost analysis (EBCA). I outline EBCA through establishing a set of rules—a meta- set of principles and standards to guide the practice of BCA. Finally, I show that in principle, this conception of BCA offers both a superior version of efficiency and a more accurate reflection of our moral compass