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150 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1553 (2001-2002)
Pricing the Priceless: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Environmental Protection

handle is hein.journals/pnlr150 and id is 1567 raw text is: PRICING THE PRICELESS: COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FRANK ACKERMANt & LISA HEINZERLINGE INTRODUCTION Many analytical approaches to setting environmental standards require some consideration of costs and benefits. Even technology- based regulation, maligned by cost-benefit enthusiasts as the worst form of regulatory excess, typically entails consideration of economic costs. Cost-benefit analysis differs, however, from other analytical ap- proaches in the following respect: it demands that the advantages and disadvantages of a regulatory policy be reduced, as far as possible, to numbers, and then further reduced to dollars and cents. In this fea- ture of cost-benefit analysis lies its doom. Indeed, looking closely at the products of this pricing scheme makes it seem not only a little cold, but a little crazy as well. Consider the following examples, which we are not making up. They are not the work of a lunatic fringe, but, on the contrary, they reflect the work products of some of the most influential and reputa- ble of today's cost-benefit practitioners. We are not sure whether to laugh or cry; we find it impossible to treat these studies as serious con- tributions to a rational discussion. Several years ago, states were in the middle of their litigation against tobacco companies, seeking to recoup the medical expendi- tures they had incurred as a result of smoking. At that time, W. Kip Viscusi-a professor of law and economics at Harvard and the primary source of the current $6.3 million estimate for the value of a statistical life -undertook research concluding that states, in fact, saved money t Research Director, Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts Uni- versity. Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. This Article explores ideas more fully presented in our forthcoming book, PRICELESS: HUMAN HEALTH, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND THE LIMITS OF THE MARKET (forthcoming 2002). This Article also draws upon a monograph of the same title pub- lished by the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute in 2002. W. KIP VIscUSI, RATIONAL RISK POLICY 46 (1998). (1553)

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