OECD countries rely on regulatory tools to manage potential risks from exposure to targeted chemicals. Ex-ante regulatory impact assessment has a long tradition in many OECD countries, with established analytical steps and oversight as well as opportunities for public engagement to hold...

Cost-benefit analyses and other quantitative appraisals are used in many countries to support decision-making in different areas of public policy, including many investment projects in sectors such as transport and energy. These decisions can have significant effects – either negative or...

While the basic principles of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) are long-standing, the challenges entailed in applying these principles are constantly evolving. This paper reviews recent developments in environmental CBA since the publication of an OECD volume on this topic by Pearce et al. (2006)....

There are now a large number of valuation studies on the benefits of biodiversity and on ecosystem services, the services provided by different ecosystems (ESS). Both ideas have been used to elicit values from nature but in recent years the research community has focussed on ESS as the main...

This paper reviews and discusses the existing methods for placing a value on the effects of chemicals on human health and the environment. It surveys both methods and non-market methods, discussing their advantage and limitations. For example, when valuing non-fatal illnesses, the...

The purpose of this working paper is to review existing chemical risk assessment methods in the context of supporting socio-economic cost-benefit analysis, focusing on more “typical” risk assessments that may not have strong epidemiologic data and/or were not originally designed to support...

Based on an in-depth literature review and responses to a survey among OECD member countries, this paper discusses the use of flexibility mechanisms in environmental regulations. Such mechanisms can provide flexibility as to how a given environmental improvement is achieved, regarding where...

This paper gives an overview of economic assessments of the benefits of the control of emissions of mercury compounds, discusses their completeness from a social cost point of view, and discusses the relative magnitudes of the values attached to mercury compounds in different contexts. The...

This paper gives an overview of economic assessments of the benefits of the control of exposure to phthalates, a group of chemicals with numerous uses, most importantly, as a plasticiser to make rigid plastics like PVC flexible. There is significant concern that these substances can act as...

Environmental conditions are likely to have an effect on people’s sense of life satisfaction, both directly and indirectly. In recent years there has been a burgeoning literature assessing the relationship between measures of environmental quality and subjective well-being. This type of...