Benefit-Cost Analysis: Scoping Report

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is required to do a regulatory impact analysis assessing the costs and benefits of its tobacco products and other regulations. This paper provides a critical review of the approach the FDA used in its proposed and final graphic warning label rule, and includes recommendations on how to improve the analysis in ways that account for the differences between tobacco use and consumption of most consumer products. To date, FDA…

This case study examines the effects of increased education on mortality risks. Historically, benefit-cost analyses have focused on the effect of education on future wages. However, the available evidence also suggests that education reduces under-five and adult mortality rates. This paper estimates how net benefits, as well as the ratio of benefits to costs, responds to the approach used to value mortality risk reductions. It considers one additional year of schooling in lower-middle-income countries, incremental…

This is one of two case studies that was conducted to support the Benefit-Cost Analysis Reference Case Workshop, held on November 2-3, 2017, which is part of the second phase of a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop guidelines for high quality benefit-cost analyses. These guidelines will provide a reference case that promotes comparability across analyses, and will include principles, methodological specifications, and reporting standards. They will build on the existing iDSI…