How are issues of incidence analysis and capitalization (discussed in the previous chapter) incorporated into cost-benefi t analysis? For each case below, does it make a diff erence to your answer whether poor individuals own or rent their houses? In particular, if you wished to incorporate the distributional consequences of the following policies and programs, how might you do so?
a. A government regulation that reduces the allowable level of noise for aircraft. (Assume that those who live in the neighborhood of the airport are relatively poor.)
b. A subway line intended to make it less expensive for those in low-income neighborhoods to get to jobs in the center city.
c. The Superfund program is intended to clean up toxic waste sites. Currently, a disproportionate number of poor people live near toxic waste sites.