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| Harrington, Winston; Morgenstern, Richard D.; Nelson, Peter. |
| This study compares ex ante estimates of the direct costs of individual regulations to ex post assessments of the same regulations. Our review of more than two dozen environmental and occupational safety regulations indicates that ex ante estimates of total (direct) costs have tended to exceed actuals. We find this to be true of 12 of the 25 rules in our data set, while for only 6 were the ex ante estimates too low. The overestimation of total costs is often due to errors in the quantity of emission reductions achieved by the rule which, in turn, suggest that the rule's benefits may also be overestimated. The quantity errors are driven by both baseline and compliance issues. At least for EPA and OSHA rules, overestimation of per-unit abatement costs occurs... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Environmental costs; Costing accuracy; Innovation and regulation; Demand and Price Analysis; D82; K23; Q28. |
| Ano: 1999 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10894 |
