Marginal Cost in the New Economy ― A Proposal for a Uniform Approach to Policy Evaluations

From extensive experience in corporate and governmental policy-making, Conkling (U. of Portland) proposes that a single standard, marginal cost methodology, replace the hodgepodge of methods now used for cost-benefit analyses of policy issues and applies it to debates over school vouchers, prescription drug pricing, and antitrust cases. In reviewing principles for the New Economy, he discusses Treasury Secretary Larry Summers' challenge in 2000 to traditional microeconomics and marginal cost pricing as promulgated by Alfred E. Kahn in his influential work, The Economics of Regulation (1970-71). The appendix features several views on pre-Kahn marginal cost pricing theory. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)