Comment: Does benefit cost analysis stand alone? rights and standing

Richard O. Zerbe
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Richard O. Zerbe: Professor in the Graduate School of Public Affairs and Adjunct Professor at the School of Law and also the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Washington, Postal: Professor in the Graduate School of Public Affairs and Adjunct Professor at the School of Law and also the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Washington

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1991, vol. 10, issue 1, 96-105

Abstract: The issue of standing in benefit cost analysis is not different from the issue of rights. Benefit cost analysis contributes to legal analysis and also rests upon legal analysis. Debates about standing issues can be reinterpreted as questions of the role of benefit cost analysis when rights are uncertain at the margin. This perspective illumines such questions as whether gains to the criminal count and what weight should be given to expert opinion, to irrational fears, and to gains or losses by foreigners. This perspective is also consistent with a rights-based interpretation of 1) the willingness-to-pay approach, 2) an approach that considers distributional consequences, and 3) an approach that ignores distributional consequences when the costs of determining them are likely to be greater than the benefits.

Date: 1991
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:10:y:1991:i:1:p:96-105

DOI: 10.2307/3325515

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