Two recent papers deal with some hard questions in the area of cost-benefit analysis. Here are two recurring problems: (a) deciding which costs and benefits to count and (b) how precisely to count some types of costs and benefits. For example, can ‘collateral’ effects of government action be excluded from consideration? Is it appropriate to […] Read more

Cass Sunstein has been whetting appetites for his new book, Simpler: the Future of Government (out April 9) by doling out tasty samples of its content (see e.g. here and here). One of these is an essay for Foreign Affairs, “Regulatory Moneyball”. The title is borrowed from Michael Lewis’ superb Moneyball: the Art of Winning […] Read more

Last week, the New York Times published a lengthy article on the ‘secret kill list’ being maintained by President Obama. Whatever the merits of targeted killings as a matter of international law, international human rights law, or justice, for students of administrative law, there are at least three aspects of interest to the story. To […] Read more

Interesting paper here from Arden Rowell (University of Illinois). One of the difficulties with regulators performing cost-benefit analyses lies in determining what should go into the analysis. Some things we can count quite easily: to use Rowell’s example, the cost of installing rear-view cameras on cars; and the benefits in terms of lives saved (although […] Read more