Cost-Benefit Analysis

Golden rule of economics

every action should continue until the additional benefit of doing the action falls below the additional cost

Pareto Efficiency

if no additional change could make at least one of you better without making the other worse off

Utilitarian efficiency

maximize the sum of everyone’s utility

Egalitarian efficiency 

divide the benefits equally among members of society 

Rawlsian efficiency

maximize the utility of the least well-off person

Environmental Impact Assessment

identification and study of all significant environmental repercussions stemming from a course of action

-National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA)

Regulatory Impact Analysis

systematically and comprehensively identify and estimate the impacts flowing from regulations

Cost-effectiveness analysis 

estimate the costs of these different alternative with the aim of showing how they compared in terms of the costs and outcome

Damage Assessment

estimate the value of the damages to an injured resource so that these amounts can be recovered from those held liable by the courts

Benefit cost analysis

-helps with making public decisions, done from the standpoint of society

-usually is done for policies and programs that have unmarketed types of outputs, such as improvements in environmental quality

Physical impacts

aoivded costs - benefits of pollution control

Cost of illness (COI) approach

increased medical and other costs associated with particular pollution-related illnesses