The Value of a Statistical Life and the Coefficient of Relative Risk Aversions PDF Download

Author: Louis Kaplow
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Investments
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description

Author: Louis Kaplow
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Investments
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Individuals' risk preferences are estimated and employed in a variety of settings, notably including choices in financial, labor, and product markets. Recent work, especially in financial economics, provides estimates of individuals' coefficients of relative risk aversion (CRRA's) in excess of one, and often significantly higher. However, it can be shown that high CRRA's imply equally high values for the income elasticity of the value of a statistical life. Yet estimates of this elasticity, derived from labor and product markets, are in the range of 0.5 to 0.6. Furthermore, it turns out that even a CRRA below one is difficult to reconcile with these elasticity estimates. Thus, there appears to be an important (additional) anomaly involving individuals' risk-taking behavior in different market settings.

Author: W. Kip Viscusi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The refinement in worker fatality risk data used in hedonic wage studies and evidence from new stated preference studies have facilitated the exploration of the heterogeneity of the value of statistical life (VSL). Although the median VSL estimate for workers is $7-$8 million, the VSL varies considerably within the worker population. New estimates of the income elasticity of VSL are 1.0 or above, which are consistent with theoretical models linking VSL to the coefficient of relative risk aversion. The specific relationship between VSL and risk aversion is, however, more complex than previously understood. Age differences in VSL are substantial, with young children being accorded especially high VSL amounts. The public's willingness to pay to reduce risks is reduced if those being protected are perceived as being blameworthy due to their responsibility for contributing to the risk.

Author: Thomas J. Kniesner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
We examine differences in the value of statistical life (VSL) across potential wage levels in panel data using quantile regressions with intercept heterogeneity. Latent heterogeneity is econometrically important and affects the estimated VSL. Our findings indicate that a reasonable average cost per expected life saved cut-off for health and safety regulations is $7 million to $8 million per life saved, but the VSL varies considerably across the labor force. Our results reconcile the previous discrepancies between hedonic VSL estimates and the values implied by theories linked to the coefficient of relative risk aversion. Because the VSL varies elastically with income, regulatory agencies should regularly update the VSL used in benefit assessments, increasing the VSL proportionally with changes in income over time.

Author: Mary Frances Evans
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Income
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
Efforts to reconcile inconsistencies between theory and estimates of the income elasticity of the value of a statistical life (IEVSL) overlook important restrictions implied by a more complete description of the individual choice problem. We develop a more general model of the IEVSL that reconciles some of the observed discrepancies. Our framework describes how exogenous income shocks, such as unexpected medical expenditures, may affect labor supply decisions which in turn influence both the coefficient of relative risk aversion and the IEVSL. The presence of a consumption commitment, such as a home mortgage, also alters this labor supply adjustment. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study to explore the responsiveness of labor force exit decisions to spousal health shocks and the role of a home mortgage as a constraint on this response.

Author: Rune Elvik
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527512975
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Research on the monetary value of saving life and limb has produced results most laypeople would regard as nonsensical; however, researchers continue to try to make sense of these bewildering results and produce new studies. An almost forgotten theory of science can explain why this is so. Studies designed to obtain monetary valuations of life and limb have produced extremely diverse results. There is no consensus among researchers working in the field about the best research methods or the most credible results of research. However, this field of study continues to thrive. The methodology of scientific research programmes, a theory of science developed by the late philosopher Imre Lakatos, can help explain why a particular field of study continues to exist, despite not producing meaningful or easily interpreted results. Readers of the book will gain insight into internal norms of science that guide researchers to continue to pursue studies even if the findings, taken at face value, contradict the theoretical foundations of the research. Scientific theories can be upheld even when the evidence against them seems to be massive.

Author: W. Kip Viscusi
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195102932
Category : Decision-making
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Examining issues related to the social regulation of risk, this volume contains essays on the value of life, empirical estimates of the value of life, the rationality of individual responses to risk, the effect of government risk regulation efforts, and the role of the courts and insurance.

Author: W. Kip Viscusi
Publisher: Now Publishers Inc
ISBN: 1601984766
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 89

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Book Description
Policy Challenges of the Heterogeneity of the Value of Statistical Life focuses on the variation in VSL both across different studies in the academic literature and in different policy contexts. These differences often reflect quite legitimate heterogeneity in the valuation of risk. This review of the academic literature is coupled with an examination of the policy arena's use of the VSL methodology. Government agencies adopted the VSL approach to valuing risk regulations almost three decades ago. As government agencies continue to refine their benefit assessment procedure, the potential role of heterogeneity of VSL has moved to the forefront of these debates. Sections II through IV review various analytical underpinnings of the VSL methodology, particularly focusing on labor market estimates. Subsequent sections consider different sources of heterogeneity, how these sources should influence benefit assessments, and how they have been used in actual policy contexts.

Author: John H. Cochrane
Publisher: Now Publishers Inc
ISBN: 1933019158
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
Financial Markets and the Real Economy reviews the current academic literature on the macroeconomics of finance.

Author: W. Kip Viscusi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069120859X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
How society’s undervaluing of life puts all of us at risk—and the groundbreaking economic measure that can fix it Like it or not, sometimes we need to put a monetary value on people's lives. In the past, government agencies used the financial "cost of death" to monetize the mortality risks of regulatory policies, but this method vastly undervalued life. Pricing Lives tells the story of how the government came to adopt an altogether different approach--the value of a statistical life, or VSL—and persuasively shows how its more widespread use could create a safer and more equitable society for everyone. In the 1980s, W. Kip Viscusi used the method to demonstrate that the benefits of requiring businesses to label hazardous chemicals immensely outweighed the costs. VSL is the risk-reward trade-off that people make about their health when considering risky job choices. With it, Viscusi calculated how much more money workers would demand to take on hazardous jobs, boosting calculated benefits by an order of magnitude. His current estimate of the value of a statistical life is $10 million. In this book, Viscusi provides a comprehensive look at all aspects of economic and policy efforts to price lives, including controversial topics such as whether older people's lives are worth less and richer people's lives are worth more. He explains why corporations need to abandon the misguided cost-of-death approach, how the courts can profit from increased application of VSL in assessing liability and setting damages, and how other countries consistently undervalue risks to life. Pricing Lives proposes sensible economic guideposts to foster more protective policies and greater levels of safety in the United States and throughout the world.