On the Value of the Umbilical Cord Blood Supply

We estimated that the annual social benefit of having a cord blood system far outweighs its costs, by more than an order of magnitude. Thus, the social benefits of maintaining the US public cord blood banking system at the present time far outweigh the costs of collecting, storing, and distributing cord blood. This suggests that there is a potential justification for government intervention to align social benefits and costs. Nevertheless, simple fixes may produce unintended consequences, and so a careful design for subsidies is needed.