The value of a statistical life in a dictatorship: Evidence from Stalin

Paul Castañeda Dower, Andrei Markevich and Shlomo Weber

European Economic Review, 2021, vol. 133, issue C

Abstract: We examine the value of a statistical life of a citizen in the interwar Soviet Union based on the preferences of its dictator. We model and specify Stalin’s preferences for a policy of statistical repression, an integral feature of the Great Terror (1937–1938). We use regional variation in the victims generated by this policy to structurally estimate the value that Stalin would have been willing to accept for a reduction in citizens’ fatality risk. Our estimate of this value, roughly $85,000 (in 2019 U.S. dollars), is substantially smaller than estimates based on citizens’ willingness to pay in modern India and in the United States in 1940.

Keywords: Value of a statistical life; Autocracy; Stalin; Great Terror (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 J17 N44 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292121000167
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: The Value of a Statistical Life in a Dictatorship: Evidence from Stalin (2018)
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:eee:eecrev:v:133:y:2021:i:c:s0014292121000167

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103663

Access Statistics for this article

European Economic Review is currently edited by T.S. Eicher, A. Imrohoroglu, E. Leeper, J. Oechssler and M. Pesendorfer

More articles in European Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().