Benefit-cost analysis (BCA) is typically defined as an implementation of the potential Pareto criterion, which requires inclusion of any impact for which individuals have willingness to pay (WTP). This definition is incompatible with the exclusion of impacts such as rights and distributional concerns, for which individuals do have WTP. I propose a new definition: BCA should include only impacts for which consumer sovereignty should govern. This is because WTP implicitly preserves consumer sovereignty, and is thus only appropriate for ‘sovereignty-warranting’ impacts. I compare the high cost of including non-sovereignty-warranting impacts to the relatively low cost of excluding sovereignty-warranting impacts.

效益成本分析（BCA）通常被定义为潜在的帕累托标准的实现，该标准要求包括个人愿意为此支付的任何影响（WTP）。此定义与个人确实具有WTP的排除影响（例如权利和分配问题）不相容。我提出了一个新的定义：BCA应该仅包括消费者主权应支配的影响。这是因为WTP隐含地维护了消费者的主权，因此仅适用于“维护主权”的影响。我将包括非主权担保影响的高昂成本与排除主权担保影响的相对低廉的成本进行了比较。