Cognition and Cost-Benefit Analysis

University of Chicago Law School, John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 85

57 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 1999

See all articles by Cass R. Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein

Harvard Law School; Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)

Date Written: September 1999

Abstract

Cost-benefit analysis is often justified on conventional economic grounds, as a way of preventing inefficiency. But it is most plausibly justified on cognitive grounds -- as a way of counteracting predictable problems in individual and social cognition. Poor judgments, by individuals and societies, can result from certain heuristics; from informational and reputational "cascades"; from thinking processes in which benefits are "on screen" but costs are not; from ignoring systemic effects of one-shot interventions; from seeing cases in isolation; and from intense emotional reactions. Cost-benefit analysis serves as a corrective to these cognitive problems. In addition, it is possible to arrive at an "incompletely theorized agreement" on cost-benefit analysis -- an agreement that does not depend on controversial arguments (e.g., the view that "willingness to pay" should be the basis for all social outcomes) and that can attract support from a variety of reasonable views. There is discussion as well of the role of "distributional weights" and other equitable factors in cost-benefit analysis. The conclusion is that the best argument for cost-benefit analysis is rooted in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics.

JEL Classification: D61

Suggested Citation

Sunstein, Cass R., Cognition and Cost-Benefit Analysis (September 1999). University of Chicago Law School, John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 85, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=186669 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.186669

Cass R. Sunstein (Contact Author)

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Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) ( email )

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