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2021 SBCA Annual Conference & Workshop Dates Set

The 2021 Annual Conference & Workshops will take place March 17-19, with a working contingency to deliver programming online, if necessary.

SBCA Blog Now Includes Online Chat Function

Our popular blog, “On Balance,” now includes a chat function, providing an opportunity for interactive discussion of associated issues.

Advance Benefit-Cost Analysis with a Donation to SBCA

SBCA relies on financial support from institutions and individuals within the benefit-cost community to support our work. Take a look at donation options.

SBCA Repository of COVID-19 Resources

Amid the pandemic, SBCA will be updating a special page with content and resources relevant to COVID-19.

Is Your Institution an SBCA Organizational Affiliate?

Did you know that SBCA makes four levels of affiliate membership available to institutions engaged with benefit-cost analysis with an ascending scale of benefits?

Journal of Cost-Benefit Analysis

The Spring 2020 edition examines the OIRA’s past, present & future while examining the Elwha River restoration, public investment in tourism & the value of a dog’s life.

Become an SBCA Member Today

Become a part of the world’s largest benefit-cost community while helping to build awareness and appreciation of the field.

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Mark Your Calendars

SBCA Webinar Series:
Surviving Judicial Review -
August 4, 2020

SBCA European Webinar - Oct. 14, 2020

Southern Economic Association - Nov. 21-23, New Orleans, LA

Society for Risk Analysis - Dec. 13-17, 2020, Austin, TX

Allied Social Sciences Association Meeting - Jan. 3-5, 2021, Chicago, IL

Assessing Ways of Saving Lives During the COVID-19 Pandemic:
A conversation with Kip Viscusi

The policy debate over how best to respond to COVID-19 centers around whether the costs of social distancing and other measures are justified in terms of the lives saved. As recent headlines and news stories have indicated, there is no shortage of opinions on this trade-off. But if you dig deeper, you will find a thoughtful body of literature that can guide this type of decision making.

The Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis is offering a quick way to get up to speed on this concept: a conversation between Kip Viscusi, leading authority in value of statistical life analysis, former SBCA president, University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management at Vanderbilt Law School, and author of the book Pricing Lives: Guideposts for a Safer Society and Tom Kniesner, editor of the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis.

June 30, 2020 10:00am EDT

On Balance Blog

On Balance: Matthew D. Adler, Measuring Social Welfare: An Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2019. Review by James K. Hammitt, Harvard University

June 24, 2020
By James K. Hammitt

Benefit-cost analysis (BCA) is loosely interpreted as a method for determining whether a policy is in the public interest. More formally, BCA measures the effect of a policy change on each individuals wellbeing as a monetary value and sums these values over the population. If the sum is positive, the policy change is declared a potential Pareto improvement, meaning the change plus some set of cost-free money transfers would be Pareto superior to the status quo (or other comparator).

Registration Now Open

The in-person SBCA European Conference has been canceled for this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the keynote speakers have agreed to share their thoughts in an online event to be held October 14th.

Here are a few preliminary details including the tentative titles of the talks:

Jason Shogren (University of Wyoming): Challenges of social distancing, how did the assumptions made in March turn out in retrospective? Uncertainty in CBA, advice to real policy-making and the CBA.
John Hassler ( Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University): Perspectives on the covid-19 pandemic and cost benefit analysis
Christian Gollier (Toulouse School of Economics) : Comments on both keynotes

For more information on the SBCA European webinar, please visit here.

To register for the free webinar, please click here.

Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis

Volume 11 - Issue 1 of the JBCA Spring 2020

The spring 2020 edition of the Journal presents a collection of seven papers addressing the role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs(OIRA) ...

Volume 10- Issue 3 - of the JBCA Fall 2019

The fall edition of the Journal includes an invited essay by Alain Enthoven (2019) of Stanford University, who helps us understand the beginning and growth...

Volume 10 - Issue 2 of the JBCA Summer 2019

The spring edition of the journal is a Special Issue - Benefit-Cost Analysis in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Methods and Case Studies

SBCA News

May 2020 SBCA Newsletter

SBCA News and Updates

Covid-19 BCA Resources

SBCA is currently dedicated to providing the latest and most informative information on COVID-19 Policy Benefit-Cost Resources.

Research Opportunity

Resources for the Future (RFF) is soliciting research proposals that pursue creative new ideas for measuring actual, realized costs and benefits of federal environmental regulations.

SBCA Member Benefits

Significant discounts on the SBCA Annual Conference registration.

Connection to the pre-eminent, global community of benefit-cost practitioners, advocates, and academics.

A complimentary subscription to the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis.

Access to a growing supply of members-only programs and benefits.

Support of the only organization dedicated entirely to the practice and advancement of benefit-cost analysis.

What Is Benefit-Cost Analysis?

Benefit-cost analysis (BCA) is a process through which companies, governmental authorities, and organizations around the world systematically measure and assess the pros and cons of alternatives. BCA can be used to analyze long term effects of large-scale investments, events, regulations, policies, and high-level decisions. BCA goes beyond other disciplines to evaluate not only the financial impact of decisions and actions, but the social, environmental, cultural, and other effects.