Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses

The Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are designed to provide assistance to analysts in the economic analysis of environmental policies, but they do not provide a rigid blueprint or a “cookbook” for all policy assessments. The most productive and illuminating approaches for particular situations will depend on a variety of case-specific factors and will require professional judgment. The Guidelines should be viewed as a summary of analytical methodologies, empirical techniques, and data sources that can assist in performing economic analysis of environmental policies. When drawing upon these various resources, there is no substitute for reviewing the original source materials.