Estimating environmental health benefits: implications for social decision making

Abstract

Discusses the measurement and conceptual difficulties of assessing the benefits of environmental improvements in monetary terms, in the context of a study undertaken to evaluate the health‐related benefits of improved air quality in a large, diverse urban population. Describes an interdisciplinary approach methodology to assess health benefits and uses the results from a study based on that approach to illustrate the practical and conceptual difficulties of comprehensively assessing such benefits. Ends with a discussion of the implications of these difficulties for using benefit‐cost analysis in deciding public policy for health‐related environmental improvements, particularly in the case of complex atmospheric changes.

Citation

Hall, J.V. (1996), "Estimating environmental health benefits: implications for social decision making", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 23 No. 4/5/6, pp. 282-295. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299610121859