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Valuing Foreign Lives And Civilizations In Cost-Benefit Analysis: The Case Of The United States And Climate Change Policy, David A. Dana Jan 2009

Valuing Foreign Lives And Civilizations In Cost-Benefit Analysis: The Case Of The United States And Climate Change Policy, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

This Article explores the case for including losses of foreign (non-U.S.) lives and settlements in the estimated cost to the United States of unmitigated climate change in the future. The inclusion of losses of such foreign lives and settlements in cost benefit analysis (CBA) could have large implications not only for U.S. climate change policy but also for policies adopted by other nations and the practice of CBA generally. One difficult problem is how to assess U.S. residents' willingness to pay to prevent the losses of foreign lives and settlements. This Article discusses internet-based surveys that are a first step …


Reforming Section 10 And The Habitat Conservation Plan Program, David A. Dana Jan 2009

Reforming Section 10 And The Habitat Conservation Plan Program, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

This Chapter in a forthcoming book to be published by AEI (edited by Jonathan Adler) provides a framework for HCP reform. The Chapter first briefly reviews the history of HCP regulations and guidance, and what we know about HCPs in practice (which is limited). It offers a range of reforms to address problems in the current HCP approach, including requirements that the Services assemble a better database regarding current HCPs and report to Congress on the program periodically; greater reliance on programmatic regulations adopted after notice and comment; development of guidelines for assessing the likely or possible environmental impacts of …


When Less Liability May Mean More Precaution: The Case Of Nanotechnology, David A. Dana Jan 2009

When Less Liability May Mean More Precaution: The Case Of Nanotechnology, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

The heart of the Article is an exploration of the possible role of common law tort liability in both encouraging and deterring voluntary, precautionary study of new products generally and nanotechnology products in particular. A key variable in considering liability's role as an incentive or deterrent to testing is the manufacturer's subjective assessment of the probability that any injuries from its product would be detected by the injured parties and successfully attributed to the product absent research by the manufacturer itself on the adverse effects of the product. Another key variable is the legal standard for tort liability, and specifically …


The Contextual Rationality Of The Precautionary Principle, David A. Dana Jan 2009

The Contextual Rationality Of The Precautionary Principle, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

This article defines the precautionary principle (PP) primarily based on what it is not: it is not quantitative cost-benefit analysis (CBA) or cost-cost analysis of the sort we associate with the Office of Management and Budget in the United States and U.S. policymaking and policy discourse generally. In this definition, the PP is a form of analysis in which the costs of a possible environmental or health risk are not quantified, or if they are, any quantification is likely to be inadequate to capture the full extent of the costs of not taking regulatory measures to mitigate or avoid the …