The argument that environmental standards must be harmonized among countries involved in free trade in order to ensure a quot;level playing fieldquot; has been prominent in the recent political discourse surrounding globalization and the expansion of international trade. Among academic...

Many of the objections raised against the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to evaluate government regulation, especially in the environmental context, center around the difficulties involved in quantifying and monetizing regulatory benefits. These difficulties implicate deep theoretical issues...

This article looks at the ongoing debate over the use of cost-benefit analysis in agency rulemaking through a case study of a set of EPA power plant regulations that brought that debate before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009. In the briefing before the Court, a peculiar pattern emerged: the...

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is one of three criteria by which the goals of environmental regulation can be set. (The other two are feasibility and health-based standards.) The term refers to any decision-making technique that weighs and compares the costs and the benefits of a course of action,...

Designing climate change regulation presents a dilemma. Because 32 to 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions result from individual choices, climate change regulation must shift the significant financial incentives that both corporations and individuals now face to use carbon-based energy...

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is usually treated as a monolith. In fact, the term can refer to a broad variety of decision making practices, ranging from a qualitative comparison of pros and cons to a highly formalized and technical method grounded in economic theory that monetizes both costs and...

When President Obama came to the White House and put his appointees in place, they faced a long to-do list. For the preceding eight years, the dominant view within the Executive Branch had been that health, safety, and environmental regulation was a nuisance to business, cutting into industry...