From: RegBlog/Penn Program on Regulation
In 2003, Cass Sunstein published a book called The Cost-Benefit State, and in it he argued that policymaking in the United States has transformed itself into one that emphasizes the use of economic analysis to inform government decisions before adopting new regulatory policies. That book appeared a little more than two decades after President Reagan issued Executive Order 12,291, which established the White House review process that continues to exist in largely the same form today, calling upon federal agencies to use cost-benefit analysis to look carefully at significant regulations before they adopt them.