U.S. Army Engineers and the Rise of Cost-Benefit Analysis

2020 ◽  
pp. 148-190
Author(s):  
Theodore M. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Army Corps ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Bureau Of Reclamation ◽  
Conflict Cost ◽  
Utility Companies ◽  
Economic Analyses

This chapter traces the history of cost–benefit analysis in the United States bureaucracy from the 1920s until about 1960. It is not a story of academic research, but of political pressure and administrative conflict. Cost–benefit methods were introduced to promote procedural regularity and to give public evidence of fairness in the selection of water projects. Early in the century, numbers produced by the Army Corps of Engineers were usually accepted on its authority alone, and there was correspondingly little need for standardization of methods. About 1940, however, economic numbers became objects of bitter controversy, as the Corps was challenged by such powerful interests as utility companies and railroads. The really crucial development in this story was the outbreak of intense bureaucratic conflict between the Corps and other government agencies, especially the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Reclamation. The agencies tried to settle their feuds by harmonizing their economic analyses. When negotiation failed as a strategy for achieving uniformity, they were compelled to try to ground their makeshift techniques in economic rationality. On this account, cost–benefit analysis had to be transformed from a collection of local bureaucratic practices into a set of rationalized economic principles.

Precaution, Proportionality, and Cost/Benefit Analysis: False Analogies

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Rose–Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
European Union ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
The Us ◽  
Proportionality Principle

The Politics of Precaution by David Vogel, and the edited volume, The Reality of Precaution each compare the United States with Europe over a range of regulatory areas. Vogel claims that the US and Europe changed places in recent years with Europe becoming more precautionary than the US. The edited volume covers a wider range of topics and finds that the results are mixed. The evidence of diversity in the edited volume appears convincing, but this essay argues that both volumes too narrowly focus on the precautionary principle. Rather it argues for a broader context that confronts precaution both with the proportionality principle, which is a mainstay of European Union law, and with the limitations of cost/benefit analysis and Impact Assessment. It unpacks the normative underpinnings of these concepts to suggest a broader frame for policy analysis.

Overview of the Economic and Social Impacts of Gambling in the United States

2013 ◽  
pp. 107-128
Author(s):  
Douglas M. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Casino Gambling ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic And Social Impacts ◽  
Social Costs Of Gambling

This chapter provides an overview of empirical research on the economic and social impacts of gambling. Issues examined include the effects of casino gambling on economic growth; the relationships among gambling industries and the implications of these relationships on net government tax revenue; the social costs of gambling; casinos and crime; casinos and political corruption; and problems with cost-benefit analysis applied to gambling.

scholarly journals Cost-benefit Analysis of Maintaining a Fully Stocked Malignant Hyperthermia Cart versus an Initial Dantrolene Treatment Dose for Maternity Units

2018 ◽  
Vol 129 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phi T. Ho ◽  
Brendan Carvalho ◽  
Eric C. Sun ◽  
Alex Macario ◽  
Edward T. Riley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Malignant Hyperthermia ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Maternity Unit ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
General Anesthetic ◽  
Tree Model

Abstract What We Already Know about This Topic What This Article Tells Us That Is New Background The Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States recommends that dantrolene be available for administration within 10 min. One approach to dantrolene availability is a malignant hyperthermia cart, stocked with dantrolene, other drugs, and supplies. However, this may not be of cost benefit for maternity units, where triggering agents are rarely used. Methods The authors performed a cost-benefit analysis of maintaining a malignant hyperthermia cart versus a malignant hyperthermia cart readily available within the hospital versus an initial dantrolene dose of 250 mg, on every maternity unit in the United States. A decision-tree model was used to estimate the expected number of lives saved, and this benefit was compared against the expected costs of the policy. Results We found that maintaining a malignant hyperthermia cart in every maternity unit in the United States would reduce morbidity and mortality costs by $3,304,641 per year nationally but would cost $5,927,040 annually. Sensitivity analyses showed that our results were largely driven by the extremely low incidence of general anesthesia. If cesarean delivery rates in the United States remained at 32% of all births, the general anesthetic rate would have to be greater than 11% to achieve cost benefit. The only cost-effective strategy is to keep a 250-mg dose of dantrolene on the unit for starting therapy. Conclusions It is not of cost benefit to maintain a fully stocked malignant hyperthermia cart with a full supply of dantrolene within 10 min of maternity units. We recommend that hospitals institute alternative strategies (e.g., maintain a small supply of dantrolene on the maternity unit for starting treatment).

“Expensive” people: Consumer citizenship and the limits of choice in neoliberal publics

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Whitney Gent
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Housing First ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Chronic Homelessness ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Consumer Citizenship ◽  
The Cost

In a context of neoliberalism, decisions made for a “public” good are often articulated as what makes the most financial sense, and citizenship is exercised as a matter of consumer choice. Neoliberal theory positions choice as an unmitigated good, and as universally available when markets are deregulated and goods and services are privatized. Examining rhetorics of choice, however, illuminates the often-invisible power relations that shape choice, and makes visible the ways in which choice is conditioned by inequality. This essay attends to the cost–benefit analysis used to promote the spread of Housing First, an approach to addressing chronic homelessness in the United States. It argues that a neoliberal discourse of choice reconfigures possibilities for rhetorical citizenship by constructing “good” and “bad” consumer citizen subjectivities, constraining agency for “expensive” people while concentrating responsibility for public decision-making among “taxpayers.” These discourses thus limit membership to neoliberal publics to people with access to private resources.

The Political Economy of Pork: Project Selection at The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

1991 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Hird
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Distributive Politics ◽  
Army Corps ◽  
Army Corps Of Engineers ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Corps Of Engineers ◽  
Pork Barrel ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Legislative Influence

In previous studies of distributive politics scholars have investigated legislative influence without accounting for the policies' independent merits. As a result, they have failed to include a plausible explanation of the counterfactual (i.e., which projects would have been funded in the absence of congressional committee influence), which has led to invalid inferences regarding legislative influence. The model of distributive politics is reformulated to account for an assumed efficient and/or equitable project allocation in the absence of legislative influence. Using data from proposed Army Corps of Engineers' projects and the funding recommendations of three institutions, the findings indicate that pork barrel politics indeed exists and imposes significant efficiency costs but that both equity and economic efficiency play prominent roles in the decision-making process as well. Cost-benefit analysis is seen to play a constructive role by improving the efficiency of project choice; and the corps's cost-benefit analysis guidelines are beneficial from the agency's organizational perspective, as well.

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