Economic Evaluation of Public Health Laws and their Enforcement

Policy decisions can be informed by information on anticipated costs and expected future benefits of courses of action. The key questions in economic evaluation of a public health law are whether its benefits, as measured by health outcomes or cost savings, exceed its costs; secondarily, there is the question of the distribution of those costs and benefits across stakeholders. Cost savings are concrete and understandable benefits, and they provide a single compact measure that captures wrecked cars, stolen statues, fractured arms, even deaths.

This monograph is included as a chapter in the forthcoming "Public Health Law Research: Theory and Methods" book, which is expected to be published in Spring 2013.

Alternatively available on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN): http://ssrn.com/abstract=2012618