Whypolicies should be based on careful consideration of their costs andbenefits rather than on intuition, popular opinion, interest groups, andanecdotes.Opinions on government policies vary widely.Some people feel passionately about the child obesity epidemic andsupport government regulation of sugary drinks. Others argue that peopleshould be able to eat and drink whatever they like. Some people arealarmed about climate change and favor aggressive governmentintervention. Others don't feel the need for any sort of climateregulation. InThe Cost-Benefit Revolution,Cass Sunstein argues our major disagreements really involve facts, notvalues. It follows that government policy should not be based on publicopinion, intuitions, or pressure from interest groups, but onnumbers—meaning careful consideration of costs and benefits. Will apolicy save one life, or one thousand lives? Will it impose costs onconsumers, and if so, will the costs be high or negligible? Will it hurtworkers and small businesses, and, if so, precisely how much?Asthe Obama administration's “regulatory czar,” Sunstein knows hissubject in both theory and practice. Drawing on behavioral economics andhis well-known emphasis on “nudging,” he celebrates the cost-benefitrevolution in policy making, tracing its defining moments in the Reagan,Clinton, and Obama administrations (and pondering its uncertain futurein the Trump administration). He acknowledges that public officialsoften lack information about costs and benefits, and outlinesstate-of-the-art techniques for acquiring that information. Policiesshould make people's lives better. Quantitative cost-benefit analysis,Sunstein argues, is the best available method for making thishappen—even if, in the future, new measures of human well-being, alsoexplored in this book, may be better still.