Is survival a luxury good? Income elasticity of the value per statistical life

Hammitt, JK (通讯作者),Harvard Univ, Ctr Risk Anal, Boston, MA 02138 USA.;Hammitt, JK (通讯作者),Univ Toulouse Capitole, Toulouse Sch Econ, Toulouse, France.
2022-12
The value of a change in mortality risk is conventionally described by the marginal rate of substitution between income and mortality risk-the value per statistical life (VSL). The income elasticity of VSL is important for estimating how the value of mortality risk varies with time (for evaluating programs with long-lived effects) and across populations with different income levels (for evaluating programs with international consequences). Previous estimates of income elasticity based on meta-analysis of wage-differential studies and cross-sectional comparisons in stated-preference studies suggest values between about one-half and one. We present new estimates based on a 16-year series of wage-differential estimates in Taiwan. Between 1982 and 1997, estimated VSL increased by a factor of five while household labor earnings increased by 60 percent, per capita GDP increased two-and-a-half fold, and the occupational fatality rate in manufacturing and service industries decreased by half. Comparing the growth of VSL with that of household income implies the income elasticity is between about two and five, but this estimate may be biased by the endogeneity of VSL, which is affected by workers' job choices. Using a two-stage approach to control for endogeneity yields estimates of the income elasticity of VSL between two-thirds and one, consistent with estimates from other approaches.
JOURNAL OF RISK AND UNCERTAINTY
卷号:65|期号:3|页码:239-260
ISSN:0895-5646|收录类别:SSCI
语种
英语
来源机构
Harvard University; Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Toulouse School of Economics; National Taiwan University; National Bureau of Economic Research; National Central University
资助信息
The authors thank Maureen Cropper, V. Kerry Smith, W. Kip Viscusi, an anonymous referee, and seminar participants at the NBER Summer Institute, Harvard University, Toulouse School of Economics, Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Developpement (CIRED), and the American Economic Association and Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis annual conferences for helpful comments. JKH acknowledges financial support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (award number 1824492) and the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the Investments for the Future program (Investissements d'Avenir, grant ANR-17-EURE-0010).
被引频次(WOS)
0
被引频次(其他)
0
180天使用计数
1
2013以来使用计数
1
EISSN
1573-0476
出版年
2022-12
DOI
10.1007/s11166-022-09397-6
学科领域
循证经济学
关键词
Value per statistical life Income elasticity Mortality risk Benefit-cost analysis Taiwan Occupational fatality risk
资助机构
U.S. National Science Foundation(National Science Foundation (NSF)) French National Research Agency (ANR)(French National Research Agency (ANR))
WOS学科分类
Business, Finance Economics