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Carregando... The Cost-Benefit Revolution (The MIT Press)de Cass R. Sunstein
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Why policies should be based on careful consideration of their costs and benefits rather than on intuition, popular opinion, interest groups, and anecdotes. Opinions on government policies vary widely. Some people feel passionately about the child obesity epidemic and support government regulation of sugary drinks. Others argue that people should be able to eat and drink whatever they like. Some people are alarmed about climate change and favor aggressive government intervention. Others don't feel the need for any sort of climate regulation. In The Cost-Benefit Revolution, Cass Sunstein argues our major disagreements really involve facts, not values. It follows that government policy should not be based on public opinion, intuitions, or pressure from interest groups, but on numbers--meaning careful consideration of costs and benefits. Will a policy save one life, or one thousand lives? Will it impose costs on consumers, and if so, will the costs be high or negligible? Will it hurt workers and small businesses, and, if so, precisely how much? As the Obama administration's "regulatory czar," Sunstein knows his subject in both theory and practice. Drawing on behavioral economics and his well-known emphasis on "nudging," he celebrates the cost-benefit revolution in policy making, tracing its defining moments in the Reagan, Clinton, and Obama administrations (and pondering its uncertain future in the Trump administration). He acknowledges that public officials often lack information about costs and benefits, and outlines state-of-the-art techniques for acquiring that information. Policies should make people's lives better. Quantitative cost-benefit analysis, Sunstein argues, is the best available method for making this happen--even if, in the future, new measures of human well-being, also explored in this book, may be better still. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)361.60973Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Social problems and services Welfare State, Government InvolvementClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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Sunstein points out that regulation, in and of itself, is not always a good thing and that deregulation, in and of itself, is not always a good thing either. Rather, we have to estimate and measure the monetary costs and benefits. He points out that the government, as a rule of thumb, measures the statistical value of a human life as $9 million. Although this seems controversial, this is merely an expedient way to factor value. It provides a way to quantify human sentiments and to judge their worth.
The Obama administration seemed to be helped by such pragmatism. Sunstein notes that many were stultified by the administration’s changing stances of being labeled “pro-environmentalist” one day and “pro-business” the next. He explains that the cost-benefit analysis merely rendered different verdicts. Such reasoning, which has evolved since its inception under Reagan, surely has brought about positive change in the well-being of the U.S. citizen. At least, Sunstein notes positive effects and its place in American legal theory under the “general welfare” clause of the Constitution.
As with most works of economics, this book engages reason applied in the long term as the best way to economic prosperity and happiness. He admonishes the Trump administration for abandoning such ideals in favor of populist deregulation. He notes that this is a change in Republican policy and that this disagrees with the policies of Reagan, H.W. Bush, and W. Bush.
I like Sunstein’s voice. His legal and ethical reasoning are quite strong. He heavily relies upon utilitarianism, but not entirely. His decades of experience in the federal government elucidate wisdom applied to present-day problems. This book hopefully will contribute to America’s and the world’s economic success in coming generations. ( )