Hard Methods for Soft Policies: Environmental and Social Cost-Benefit Analysis

Abstract

Summary Arild Angelsen and Ussif Rashid Sumaila, ‘Hard Methods for Soft Policies: Environmental and Social Cost-Benefit Analysis’, Forum for Development Studies, 1996:1, pp. 87–114. The quest for sustainability has put the conventional Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) technique under fierce attack in the recent past. As a result, several alternative appraisal methodologies have been put forward in the debate. This article argues that much of the criticism is either misplaced or based on misunderstandings. Moreover, insofar as such criticisms against CBA are valid, similar criticisms can be levelled against most of the other methodologies being advanced. We also argue that the alternative methodologies suggested, typically under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) headings, are not necessarily wrong but simply insufficient because they do not provide a consistent framework for making the unavoidable hard choices.