Handbook on the Benefits, Costs, and Impacts of Land Cleanup and Reuse

Analysts need reliable methodologies to assess the economic effects of land cleanup and reuse. These economic effects include social benefits, social costs and a miscellaneous variety of economic impacts such as number of jobs or tax revenues. This Handbook describes EPA‘s land cleanup and reuse programs and outlines some of the unique aspects that have complicated efforts to develop suitable methods for estimating benefits. It clarifies the differences between types of economic analyses - specifically, benefit-cost and economic impact analyses. It discusses conceptual background, empirical challenges, and practical suggestions for conducting these analyses, as well as summarizing new academic literature in this area.