Critics have pointed out a number of flaws in cost/benefit analysis: It assigns a dollar value to things that are not commodities such as human life; it places a price on public goods that we consume collectively (such as air quality);

it downgrades the importance of the future through its discount rates; and it ignores distributional issues and issues of fairness.

a. How reliable do you consider cost/benefit analysis as a policy analysis tool?

b. Does cost/benefit analysis work better in some situations and worse in others? (Be sure to give some examples and to explain your overall position.)

(Radical)