In the summer 2022 issue of Regulation I have a review of Reviving Rationality: Saving Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Sake of the Environment and Our Health by Michael A. Livermore and Richard L. Revesz.
Reviving Rationality is something of a sequel to their prior book on cost-benefit analysis, Retaking Rationality: How Cost-Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect the Environment and Our Health. In the first book (which I also reviewed), Livermore and Revesz made the case for cost-benefit analysis as a tool of progressive government. In Reviving Rationality, they note how the Obama Administration (largely) followed their advice and critique the Trump Administration for abandoning principled cost-benefit analysis in regulatory policy.
Here is a taste of my review:
