Jump to ContentJump to Main Navigation

Online

99,00 € / $149.00*

* Prices subject to change. Shipping costs will be added if applicable.
Publication Date:
July 2010
ISSN:
2152-2812
DOI:
10.2202/2152-2812.1003

See all formats and pricing

Online
Individual Subscription Online only
Euro [D] 99.00
RRP for USA, Canada, Mexico
US$ 149.00 *
Print
Individual Subscription Online only
Euro [D] 312.00
RRP for USA, Canada, Mexico
US$ 420.00 *
Print + Online
Individual Subscription Online only
Euro [D] 375.00
RRP for USA, Canada, Mexico
US$ 504.00 *
*Prices subject to change. Shipping costs will be added if applicable.

Valuing Foreign Lives and Settlements

David A. Dana

1Northwestern University School of Law

Citation Information: Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis. Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages –, ISSN (Online) 2152-2812, DOI: 10.2202/2152-2812.1003, July 2010

Publication History:
Published Online:
2010-07-14

Cost-benefit analysis in the United States for policy and legal purposes traditionally has been highly parochial, excluding not just losses or gains of welfare to non-U.S. residents from a given policy but also excluding any losses or gains in welfare U.S. residents would experience as a result of impacts to foreigners and foreign settlements. In the climate change context, this approach has meant that cost-benefit analyses for the costs of unmitigated climate change to the United States value at zero the losses that U.S. residents will bear as a result of the direct, adverse impacts of climate change to foreign lives and settlements. This article argues that there are sound theoretical reasons to include such welfare losses in a cost-benefit analysis, and that doing so requires going beyond revealed preference data to consider stated preference surveys. The article presents the findings of internet-based surveys that strongly suggest that the implicit assumption of the current approach to cost-benefit analysis in the United States—that U.S. residents value foreign lives and settlements that may be destroyed by climate change at zero—is untenable.

Keywords: climate change; benefit-cost analysis

Comments (0)

Please log in or register to comment.