Weisbrod, Burton Allen, 1931-

Burton A. Weisbrod (born February 13, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American economist who pioneered the theory of option value, and the theory of why voluntary nonprofit organizations exist. He also developed the methodology for valuing voluntary labor. He advanced methods for benefit-cost analysis of public policy by recognizing the roles of externality effects and collective public goods in program evaluation. He applied those methods to the fields of education, health care, poverty, public interest law, and nonprofit organization. Over a career of fifty years, he published 16 books and over 200 scholarly articles. He is currently the Cardiss Collins Professor of Economics Emeritus and a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.