Michael A. Livermore

Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law

latest work

For decades, administrations of both political parties have used cost-benefit analysis to evaluate and improve federal policy in a variety of areas, including health and the environment. Today, this model is under grave threat.

In Reviving Rationality, Michael Livermore and Richard Revesz explain how Donald Trump has destabilized the decades-long bipartisan consensus that federal agencies must base their decisions on evidence, expertise, and analysis.

This experiment in abandoning the norms of good governance has been a disaster. Reviving Rationality explains how and why our government has abandoned rationality in recent years, and why it is so important for future administrations to restore rigorous cost-benefit analysis if we are to return to a policymaking approach that effectively tackles the most pressing problems of our era.

Order now at Amazon.com.

Check out the short video “Cost-Benefit Analysis and Federal Regulation in Five Minutes or Less,” which discusses the book.

Online interviews/discussions

interview with Kristin Hayes @ Resources Radio, hosted by Resources for the Future
interview with Adam J. White @ Arbitrary & Capricious, hosted by the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Administrative State at George Mason University
panel discussion with Jon Cannon, Jonathan Adler, and Amy Sinden, hosted by the Program for Law, Communities and the Environment (PLACE) at UVA Law
interview with Dominic Scicchitano @ People, Places, Planet Podcast, hosted by the Environmental Law Institute
interview with Juliet Eilperin (The Washington Post), hosted by the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU Law
panel discussion with Joseph Aldy, Sally Katzen, Alan Krupnick, Richard Morgenstern, and Jonathan Wiener, hosted by Resources for the Future