Analytical Clarity

The brief analyzes the impact of a revised 2% default discount rate from the Office of Management and Budget and updated social cost of greenhouse gas valuations from the Environmental Protection Agency, finding that current federal practices vastly undercount the benefits of significant regulations.

• The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) lowered the default discount rate for benefit-cost analysis from the 3% and 7% rates used since 2003 to 2% in November 2023, which allows long-term costs and benefits to carry more weight in regulatory analysis.
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued new valuations for the social cost of greenhouse gases in December 2023 that are substantially higher than previous federal estimates to better reflect current climate science and economics, though it remains uncertain if other agencies will adopt them.
• Applying the updated discount rate and draft climate-damage valuations to three recent proposed regulations demonstrates that existing federal practices significantly undercount both the benefits and the net benefits of these rules.

APA

Sarinsky, H. M. P. M. (2023). Analytical Clarity. Institute for Policy Integrity. https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/analytical-clarity

Chicago

Sarinsky, Hiroshi Matsushima Ph.D., Max. Analytical Clarity. Institute for Policy Integrity, 2023. https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/analytical-clarity.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Sarinsky |first1=Hiroshi Matsushima Ph.D., Max |title=Analytical Clarity |publisher=Institute for Policy Integrity |date=1 December 2023 |url=https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/analytical-clarity |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sarinsky2023analytical, author = {Sarinsky, Hiroshi Matsushima Ph.D., Max}, title = {{Analytical Clarity}}, institution = {Institute for Policy Integrity}, year = {2023}, month = dec, url = {https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/analytical-clarity}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }