WELLBYs, cost-benefit analyses and the Easterlin Discount

Paul Frijters

Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 39-64

Abstract: The current practise of cost-benefit analysis inWestern countries consists of a collectionof various incompatible ideas and methodologies to obtain replicable numbersfor the costs and benefits of major public spending plans. This paper describesthe main elements of the dominant methodology, which combines consumer andproducer surplus, price-taking, government-inputs-as-outputs, hedonic pricing ofexternalities, and the issue-specific use of partial or general equilibrium thinking.The paper then discusses how that methodology can be augmented and partiallyreplaced by looking at how prospective policies would change the total number ofWELLBYs (life satisfaction-adjusted years of life) of the population. The abilityof the WELLBY methodology to address complex externalities is illustrated by theEasterlin Discount, which is a proposed reduction factor of 75% on all estimates ofprivate consumption benefits to offset the envy caused in others.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576_0x003c4646.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: WELLBYs, cost-benefit analyses and the Easterlin Discount (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vid:yearbk:v:19:y:2021:i:1:oid:0x003c4646

Access Statistics for this article

Vienna Yearbook of Population Research is currently edited by Tomas Sobotka and Maria Winkler-Dworak

More articles in Vienna Yearbook of Population Research from Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bernhard Rengs ().