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This article sets out to scrutinise the theoretical assumptions and the practical implications of cost-benefit analysis (CBA), currently one of the most influential and controversial instruments used in evaluating public policies offered by economic science. The point of departure is what the authors term the commensurability-commodification nexus which, as they seek to demonstrate, structures the discourse and the policy recommendations of CBA. By commensurability-commodification nexus they mean the association between the defence of commensurability, i.e. the idea that it is always possible and desirable to reduce the different dimensions of the value of goods to an identical measure, to which a price can be attached, and the defence of extending market mechanisms to other spheres of social life. Rational choice theory is the mainstay of CBA, a mainstay whose shortcomings are not always clear when debating the merits and demerits of this instrument in the analysis of individuals’ behaviour.