Peter H. Huang Harold E. Kohn Chair Professor of Law James ...

Emotional Impact Analysis
countries and over time reveal remarkably consistent patterns in what determines an individual’s self-
reported happiness. 275 For example, a British economist and an American economist estimated that
having a lasting marriage, as compared to widowhood, generated as much happiness on average as
receiving approximately $100,000 in 1990 dollars annually. 276 Similarly, these researchers found that in a
random sample of approximately 16,000 American adult females and males, increasing the regular
frequency of sex from once a month to once a week had an impact on happiness for an average American
that was equivalent to $50,000 of additional income yearly. 277 They also discovered that undergoing a
divorce produced unhappiness that was equivalent on average to a reduction of $66,000 per year. 278
Again, to be clear EIA does not advocate nor endorse that regulators have to monetize a rule’s
emotional impacts to be able to account for, measure, and quantify emotional impacts. In contrast, Adler
explicitly advocates monetizing anxiety or fear about certain non-financial risks by engaging in what he
calls fear assessment, copying the phrase risk assessment. 279 His proposal argues that contingent-
valuation surveys are the appropriate way to price fear. 280 He states, “what about welfare-enhancing
mental states, like cheerfulness, happiness, serenity, excitement, and pleasure? Shouldn’t agencies
generally engage in a broad practice of hedonic assessment, including but not limited to fear assessment?
This seems incorrect.” 281 This Article disagrees and specifically endorses that agencies can and should
engage in a broad form of hedonic assessment, namely EIA. In fact, Adler’s quotation specifically cites
three pages from a book about happiness economics, which provide four examples of how measuring
275 See generally, Frey & Stutzer, supra note 262; and FREY & STUTZER, supra note 272.
276 David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, Well-Being Over Time in Britain and the U.S.A., 88 J. PUB. ECON.
1359, 1373 (2004).
277 David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, Money, Sex and Happiness: An Empirical Study, 106 SCAND. J.
ECON. 393, 401-04 (2004).
278 Id. See also Jonathan Gardner & Andrew J. Oswald, Do Divorcing Couples Become Happier By Breaking Up?,
169 J. ROYAL STAT . SOC’Y A 319 (2006).
279 Matthew D. Adler, Fear Assessment: Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Pricing of Fear and Anxiety, 79 CHI.-KENT
L. REV. 997 (2004).
280 Id., at 1024-34.
281 Id., at 986-87 (footnotes omitted).
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