The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard
Scientific progress offers tremendous potential benefits to society but also presents risks. While research focuses on how to manifest the benefits of any new technology, the outside community fears the consequences that technology may inadvertentl...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/886341468275363519/The-precautionary-principle-and-the-social-standard http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27358 |
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okr-10986-273582021-04-23T14:04:41Z The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard Knudsen, Odin K. Scandizzo, Pasquale L SOCIAL ACCOUNTING ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES ADVERSE EFFECTS ADVERSE IMPACTS ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS ARTICLE BASIC COMMUNITIES CONSUMER GROUPS CONSUMERS DAMAGES DECISION MAKING DESCRIPTION DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS ECONOMIC MODELS ECONOMICS ELASTICITY ERROR EXPECTED VALUE EXPECTED VALUES GDP GDP PER CAPITA HYPOTHESIS TESTING INCOME INTERNATIONAL TRADE INVENTIONS LOGIC MARGINAL BENEFITS MARGINAL COST MARGINAL VALUE MORTALITY MOTIVATION NEW TECHNOLOGY 0 HYPOTHESIS OPPORTUNITY COST PROBABILITY PROBABILITY DENSITY PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTION PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION PRODUCTION PROCESS PROTECTIONISM PROTOCOL PUBLIC GOOD RANDOM VARIABLE RESEARCHERS SAFETY SIGNIFICANCE LEVEL SIMULATION SOCIAL COSTS TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE TEST PROCEDURE TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION UNIT INCREASE Scientific progress offers tremendous potential benefits to society but also presents risks. While research focuses on how to manifest the benefits of any new technology, the outside community fears the consequences that technology may inadvertently have on social goods such as the environment, public health and security. To balance the benefits of the progress of science against the risks associated with its application is one of the major public policy challenges of the 21st century. In this paper, the author argues that the precautionary principle is an extension of the scientific method in the popperian tradition and has precedent in hypothesis testing. Under this framework, we then explore an approach that captures the essence of the weaker precautionary principle but also accounts for the 'unacceptable' outcome through the use of a social standard or threshold of harm. Under this methodology, a social standard is established and accounted for in the cost-benefit analysis. The existence of the social standard creates an additional cost or benefit to the assessment of a project. The report illustrates the methodology with a discussion of two cases: the 'mad cow' disease and the regulation on carbon emission. 2017-06-27T18:11:43Z 2017-06-27T18:11:43Z 2011 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/886341468275363519/The-precautionary-principle-and-the-social-standard http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27358 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Working Paper Publications & Research Middle East and North Africa |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
SOCIAL ACCOUNTING ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES ADVERSE EFFECTS ADVERSE IMPACTS ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS ARTICLE BASIC COMMUNITIES CONSUMER GROUPS CONSUMERS DAMAGES DECISION MAKING DESCRIPTION DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS ECONOMIC MODELS ECONOMICS ELASTICITY ERROR EXPECTED VALUE EXPECTED VALUES GDP GDP PER CAPITA HYPOTHESIS TESTING INCOME INTERNATIONAL TRADE INVENTIONS LOGIC MARGINAL BENEFITS MARGINAL COST MARGINAL VALUE MORTALITY MOTIVATION NEW TECHNOLOGY 0 HYPOTHESIS OPPORTUNITY COST PROBABILITY PROBABILITY DENSITY PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTION PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION PRODUCTION PROCESS PROTECTIONISM PROTOCOL PUBLIC GOOD RANDOM VARIABLE RESEARCHERS SAFETY SIGNIFICANCE LEVEL SIMULATION SOCIAL COSTS TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE TEST PROCEDURE TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION UNIT INCREASE |
| spellingShingle |
SOCIAL ACCOUNTING ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES ADVERSE EFFECTS ADVERSE IMPACTS ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS ARTICLE BASIC COMMUNITIES CONSUMER GROUPS CONSUMERS DAMAGES DECISION MAKING DESCRIPTION DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS ECONOMIC MODELS ECONOMICS ELASTICITY ERROR EXPECTED VALUE EXPECTED VALUES GDP GDP PER CAPITA HYPOTHESIS TESTING INCOME INTERNATIONAL TRADE INVENTIONS LOGIC MARGINAL BENEFITS MARGINAL COST MARGINAL VALUE MORTALITY MOTIVATION NEW TECHNOLOGY 0 HYPOTHESIS OPPORTUNITY COST PROBABILITY PROBABILITY DENSITY PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTION PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION PRODUCTION PROCESS PROTECTIONISM PROTOCOL PUBLIC GOOD RANDOM VARIABLE RESEARCHERS SAFETY SIGNIFICANCE LEVEL SIMULATION SOCIAL COSTS TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE TEST PROCEDURE TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION UNIT INCREASE Knudsen, Odin K. Scandizzo, Pasquale L The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard |
| geographic_facet |
Middle East and North Africa |
| description |
Scientific progress offers tremendous
potential benefits to society but also presents risks. While
research focuses on how to manifest the benefits of any new
technology, the outside community fears the consequences
that technology may inadvertently have on social goods such
as the environment, public health and security. To balance
the benefits of the progress of science against the risks
associated with its application is one of the major public
policy challenges of the 21st century. In this paper, the
author argues that the precautionary principle is an
extension of the scientific method in the popperian
tradition and has precedent in hypothesis testing. Under
this framework, we then explore an approach that captures
the essence of the weaker precautionary principle but also
accounts for the 'unacceptable' outcome through
the use of a social standard or threshold of harm. Under
this methodology, a social standard is established and
accounted for in the cost-benefit analysis. The existence of
the social standard creates an additional cost or benefit to
the assessment of a project. The report illustrates the
methodology with a discussion of two cases: the 'mad
cow' disease and the regulation on carbon emission. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Knudsen, Odin K. Scandizzo, Pasquale L |
| author_facet |
Knudsen, Odin K. Scandizzo, Pasquale L |
| author_sort |
Knudsen, Odin K. |
| title |
The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard |
| title_short |
The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard |
| title_full |
The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard |
| title_fullStr |
The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard |
| title_sort |
precautionary principle and the social standard |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/886341468275363519/The-precautionary-principle-and-the-social-standard http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27358 |
| _version_ |
1764464215059333120 |