The Social Value of Mortality Risk Reduction: VSL vs. the Social Welfare Function Approach

Matthew Adler, James Hammitt and Nicolas Treich

No 12.08.365, LERNA Working Papers from LERNA, University of Toulouse

Abstract: We examine how different welfarist frameworks evaluate the social value of mortality riskreduction. These frameworks include classical, distributively unweighted cost-benefit analysis—i.e., the “value per statistical life†(VSL) approach—and three benchmark social welfare functions (SWF): a utilitarian SWF, an ex ante prioritarian SWF, and an ex post prioritarian SWF. We examine the conditions on individual utility and on the SWF under which these frameworks display the following five properties: i) wealth sensitivity, ii) sensitivity to baseline risk, iii) equal value of risk reduction, iv) preference for risk equity, and v) catastrophe aversion. We show that the particular manner in which VSL ranks risk-reduction measures is not necessarily shared by other welfarist frameworks, and we identify when the use of an ex ante or an ex post approach has different implications for risk policymaking.

Keywords: Value of statistical life; social welfare functions; cost-benefit analysis; equity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D61 D63 D81 Q51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Social Value of Mortality Risk Reduction: VSL vs. the Social Welfare Function Approach (2012)
Working Paper: The Social Value of Mortality Risk Reduction: VSL vs. the Social Welfare Function Approach (2012)
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