 What can empirical utility functions tell us about the value of a statistical life?Rune Elvik Research in Transportation Economics, 2025, vol. 110, issue C Abstract: This paper explores how utility functions for income and health state can be applied in order to develop closed-form estimates of the value of a statistical life based on an assumption of utility maximisation. For utility functions fitted to the results of studies of life satisfaction in Norway, most estimates of the value of a statistical life are quite low, in the range of 2–30 million NOK. These estimates refer to reducing the risk of a traffic fatality, which currently is about 20 per 1 million inhabitants in Norway. These estimates are lower than nearly all estimates developed in a road safety valuation study made in 2010. By combining utility functions for health impairments and utility functions for income, it is possible to estimate the monetary compensation for a health impairment needed to restore the initial level of utility. These estimates can be extrapolated to obtain estimates of the value of a statistical life. Keywords: Utility function; Value of a statistical life; Ex ante; Ex post; Permanent impairment (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:retrec:v:110:y:2025:i:c:s0739885925000174 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2025.101534 Access Statistics for this article Research in Transportation Economics is currently edited by M. Dresner More articles in Research in Transportation Economics from Elsevier |
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