A 3.8% Discount Rate?

John M. Hartwick

No 1199, Working Papers from Queen's University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We find that a discount rate of 3.8% allows us to derive the schedule of "value of life years" in Murphy and Topel [2006] from their schedule of "value of remaining years of life", this latter presumably being based on a "value of statistical life" of $6.3 million. We draw on the Makeham function for life expectancy in our calculation.

Keywords: value of life; discount rate; life expectancy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J17 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-03

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