Behavioral Economics and the Value of a Statistical Life

Thomas Kniesner

No 12280, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: There are many possible connections between VSL and behavioral economics. A list of topics includes endowment effects, risk salience, ambiguity aversion, present bias, reference groups, reference points, and experienced versus decision utilities. There are also nudges that connect to estimating or using VSL in government decisions and cousins of behavioral economic research including interpersonal heterogeneity, experiments, neuroeconomics, and beauty or personal attractiveness. Current evidence suggests that VSL and behavioral economics best connect via (1) possible multi-attribute reference group effects and (2) a possible distinction between decision utility and experienced utility.

Keywords: VSL; behavioral economics; WTP; WTA; reference dependence; benefit-cost analysis; nudge; internality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D61 D91 J17 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2019-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-hpe, nep-ore and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Published - published in: Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 2019, 58(2-3), 207-217

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Journal Article: Behavioral economics and the value of a statistical life (2019)
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