Regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) weigh the benefits of regulations against the burdens they impose and are invaluable tools for informing decision makers. We offer 10 tips for nonspecialist policymakers and interested stakeholders who will be reading RIAs as consumers. 1. Core problem:...

The question of the proper role of government in the marketplace is an old and fundamental one. In the search for objective standards by which such decisions can be made, public officials increasingly have turned to the concept of market failure. Use of the market-failure concept is widespread...

At the eve of the Civil War, ownership of slaves and thus of wealth was highly concentrated. Only 25% of white southern families owned slaves, and the majority of slave holders, 55%, owned only one to five slaves. Large planters held the bulk of slave wealth. These were only about 46,000...

The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) is a classic example of regulation, and the origins and operation of this agency have been much analyzed. These have been variously described as examples of public interest regulation, capture regulation, and what I have called predatory regulation. By...

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...

This chapter is taken from a report for the MacArthur Foundation by the Center for Benefit–Cost Analysis entitled “Towards Principles and Standards in the Use of Benefit–Cost Analysis” (2010).This chapter draws years of scholarship and work on benefit–cost analysis into a single...

This essay, introducing a collection of articles, attempts to create a coherent sense of what is right and wrong about economic efficiency and its use in law. The aim of the essay, and of certain of the articles in the collection, is to contribute to a foundation for practical application of...

There are currently debates both about the ability to measure the value of moral sentiments and the nature of benefit-cost analysis. Moral sentiments can be reasonably measured in many situations and their consideration can improve benefit-cost analysis in any case. This argument is presented by...