Since the early Reagan years, critics have argued that benefit-cost analysis is used by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a one-sided tool of deregulation to advance the interests of business. This article discloses a little-known fact: The OMB also plays a powerful...

This paper provides theoretical background for a symposium on whether the monetary value of changes in mortality risk resulting from environmental policy is best summarized in terms of a ‘value per statistical life’ (VSL) or ‘value per statistical life-year’ (VSLY). The relationship...

This paper considers two areas of current research related to environmental economics: 1. the use of quasi-experimental or "experimentalist" methods to evaluate the effects of environmental policies; and 2. the implications of the Stern Report on the economic consequences of global climate...

Revealed preference evidence, especially based on wage-risk tradeoffs in the labor market, provides the primary empirical basis for analyses of the value of statistical life (VSL). This market evidence also provides guidance on how VSL varies with age. While labor market studies have generated...

To make prudent recommendations for improving the use of benefit-cost analysis in policy settings, some measures of how well it is actually done are essential. This article develops new insights on the potential usefulness of government benefit-cost analysis by examining how it is actually...

Controversy over the value of statistical life (VSL) centers on whether a single value should be applied to all age groups, as currently done by US government agencies, or whether lower values should be used for the elderly, recognizing that their life expectancies are shorter than those of...