Paper Number: EPA 236-B-15-001

Document Date: 12/09/2020

Author(s): U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Environmental Economics

Subject Area(s): Handbook on Valuing Changes in Time Use

Keywords:  Value of Time, Compliance Costs, Information Collection Requests, Benefit-Cost Analysis, Valuation, Regulatory Impact Analysis

Abstract: This document describes how to value changes in time use due to compliance and information provision activities induced by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory requirements. Such values inform social cost estimates in benefit-cost analysis, and burden estimates that support information collection requests (ICRs). The document begins with an explanation of the need for valuing time use changes at EPA, then presents conceptual foundations, and offers practical estimation approaches and data sources for valuing work time and non-work time. The discussion draws from two U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) documents (2016, 2017) and relies on other sources as well. A brief examination of recent EPA practice with examples of time use values calculated for past EPA analyses is included.

This paper is part of the  Environmental Economics Research Inventory.

• EPA Handbook On Valuing Changes in Time Use (PDF)(40 pp, 600 K, December 20, 2020, EPA 236-B-15-001)
  Handbook on Valuing Changes in Time Use Induced by Regulatory Requirements and Other EPA Actions