Cass R. Sunstein, Columnist

This Time the Numbers Show We Can’t Be Too Careful

Hard-headed cost-benefit analysis usually confirms that it’s dangerous to be overcautious. The coronavirus is different.

March 26, 2020 at 4:30 PM UTC

By Cass R. Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the author of “The Cost-Benefit Revolution” and a co-author of “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness.”

New normal.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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I have long been an enthusiastic defender of quantitative cost-benefit analysis, and recently wrote a book about it.

I have also long been a critic of the precautionary principle, which calls for potentially expensive precautions against bad outcomes in the face of scientific uncertainty.