The Precautionary Principle and the Social Standard

Knudsen, Odin K. ; Scandizzo, Pasquale L

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: SOCIAL;    ACCOUNTING;    ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES;    ADVERSE EFFECTS;    ADVERSE IMPACTS;   

RP-ID  :  62489

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Scientific progress offers tremendouspotential benefits to society but also presents risks. Whileresearch focuses on how to manifest the benefits of any newtechnology, the outside community fears the consequencesthat technology may inadvertently have on social goods suchas the environment, public health and security. To balancethe benefits of the progress of science against the risksassociated with its application is one of the major publicpolicy challenges of the 21st century. In this paper, theauthor argues that the precautionary principle is anextension of the scientific method in the popperiantradition and has precedent in hypothesis testing. Underthis framework, we then explore an approach that capturesthe essence of the weaker precautionary principle but alsoaccounts for the 'unacceptable' outcome throughthe use of a social standard or threshold of harm. Underthis methodology, a social standard is established andaccounted for in the cost-benefit analysis. The existence ofthe social standard creates an additional cost or benefit tothe assessment of a project. The report illustrates themethodology with a discussion of two cases: the 'madcow' disease and the regulation on carbon emission.