摘要：The dominant economic evaluation technique is benefit-cost analysis (BCA). However, sustainability policy must handle outcomes that cannot easily be quantified in monetary units. Multiple criteria analysis (MCA) is emerging as an alternative, and/or complementary, economic evaluation tool. The economics profession has been slow to adopt MCA. This paper first explores the role of MCA within the economist’s evaluation toolkit alongside BCA, costeffectiveness analysis (CEA), and cost-utility analysis (CUA) and then proposes a process for selecting an appropriate evaluation method. The choice of technique will depend on the extent to which environmental goods can be valued in monetary units. The paper argues that MCA has an expanded role to play alongside BCA (and the other methods) to ensure that sustainability policies are realized.
