An overview of Value of Statistical Life Estimations- Transportation Perspective

Omid Rouhani

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In this paper, I review the value of statistical life (VOSL) definitions/concepts, mainly in the transportation context. After examining the concept, I provide a background, discussing how the estimates should be different for each case study. Next, I overview a variety of previous studies globally, focusing on their estimated values. Finally, I summarize a few interesting observations regarding this extremely important factor for public policy analyses. The adjusted 2024 VOSL in U.S. dollars ranges from 0.1 million in Russia to 32 million in Canada; 320 times difference! In fact, VOSL values differ substantially by income, age, and geographical region as well as the sector of concern. This conclusion significantly impacts the application of VOSL for social welfare evaluations of transportation projects.

Keywords: Value of statistical life; Transportation; Health-related costs of travel; Social cost benefit analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A1 E6 H23 H7 I31 O22 R1 R4 R48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-12-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis and nep-tre
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/123119/1/MPRA_paper_123119.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:123119

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().