with any major regulatory action, even if the governing legislation forbids
the use of that analysis in the decision. Since that date there has been a
flurry of research activity designed to make such analyses possible, for
even today, the available tools are still relatively crude and untested.

However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the envi-
ronmental economics profession were not caught entirely unprepared by
the political arrival of benefit-cost analysis. Ever since its birth the
discipline has been fascinated by the challenge of measuring the benefits
of reducing harmful pollution effects, and a large literature attests to
that fascination. And for the better part of a decade, the EPA--especially
in the person of Alan Carlin--has encouraged and funded research on
benefits estimation, an area not then in the forefront of environmental
policy. This book describes the results of the EPA's program of methods
development in language that will be accessible to a wide audience of
interested citizens. One might say that the authors aim is to demystify
benefits estimation with the idea that what we understand we are less
likely to fear and resent.

As background it should be noted that this is not RFF's first foray
into the benefits literature. Indeed, a complete catalog of our relevant
efforts would be too long for this Foreword and would take us back to
the very early days of the organization. It is worth mentioning, however,
that RFF published a more technical volume in 1979, describing the
then state of the art of benefit analysis ( A. Myrick Freeman III, The
Benefits of Environmental Improvement). Those readers of a technical bent may
wish to treat this volume as an hors d'oeuvre to Freeman's entrée. But our
intention is that many readers will find this book interesting and valuable
in its own right.

Washington, D. C. July 1984

Clifford S. Russell, Director Quality of the Environment Division Resources for the Future

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