Hahn And Sunstein On The Precautionary Principle

Lynne Kiesling

Speaking of benefit-cost analysis, the new issue of The Economist’s Voice that came out yesterday has an article by Bob Hahn and Cass Sunstein on the precautionary principle. I have given it only a cursory reading, but it’s a good, readable argument about why the precautionary principle does not yield useful decision rules, and why we should use benefit-cost analysis instead.