ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the effect that benefit-cost analysis (BCA) can have and has had on public decision making in practice. To describe budget documentation systems it is necessary to review briefly the components of BCA. Benefit-cost studies of individual investment projects are made in various departments and in Congress. Some episodic evidence of the impact of regulatory analysis is provided by the decision of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to eliminate requirements for passive safety restraints in automobiles. Bargaining is characteristic between and among cabinet secretaries, agencies, the president, and Congress. Congress is concerned with its influence relative to the executive branch. Congressional committees hope to control program impacts by sampling a detailed object-classified budget. The segmented budget approach would allow the project to be designed for the appropriate owners, for example, scaled consistent with regional time preference. Budget reforms are made in the legislative as well as the executive branch.
