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Law

Cost-Benefit Analysis in Regulatory Decision-Making

Quick fact

President Reagan's 1981 Executive Order 12291 made cost-benefit analysis a required tool for major federal regulations, marking a shift from reactive to economically rationalized rulemaking. Since then, agencies have been required to justify that benefits exceed costs, profoundly shaping policies from environmental protection to food safety, despite ethical and technical controversies.

Why this is interesting

Imagine a government agency deciding whether to ban a harmful chemical but first must put a dollar value on a human life—how does that happen, and what does it reveal about how our rules are made?