normative assumptions, depends heavily on the intuitive judgment of decision makers. In contrast, benefit-cost analysis reduces all consequences to a single, monetary quantity: the net expected economic benefit of a project.

The committee decided that an approach that combines essential features of cost-effectiveness analysis and decision analysis would be the most appropriate for ranking vaccines for accelerated development. Such an approach generates substantial information on both the expected health benefits from a vaccine and the costs of achieving those benefits. Unlike the benefit-cost approach, it does not require that a monetary value be placed on health benefits. The proposed method is described in Chapter 3.

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Swartzman, D., R.A.Liroff, and K.G.Croke, eds. 1982. Cost-Benefit Analysis and Environmental Regulations: Politics, Ethics and Methods. Washington, D.C.: The Conservation Foundation.

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