Document Type

Working Paper

Date

2010

Keywords

cost-benefit analysis, feasibility analysis, feasibility principle, optimality, regulation, well-being, plant shutdowns, unemployment

Language

English

Disciplines

Economic Policy

Description/Abstract

This article compares the relative merits of feasibility and cost-benefit based regulation, responding to a recent article by Jonathan Masur and Eric Posner on this topic. Normatively, it shows that the lack of correlation between non-subsistence consumption and welfare supports the argument that regulation should be strict, unless widespread plant shutdowns, which would seriously impact well-being, are involved. It shows that a host of practical defects Masur and Posner find in feasibility analysis would infect cost-benefit analysis as well. In light of the importance of cost's distribution, serious regard for individual well-being supports the feasibility principle better than a cost-benefit test.

Source

Metadata from SSRN

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