Making Social Trade-offs among Lives, Disabilities, and Cost

Robert F Bordley

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1994, vol. 9, issue 2, 135-50

Abstract: Applying cost/benefit techniques to issues of life and death generally requires a single index, comparable to gross domestic product, describing the welfare of any community in terms of the health, quality of life, wealth, and longevity of its population. While such indices, based on economic and multi attribute utility theory, do exist, they generally require detailed information on the preferences of the affected individuals. Since gathering such detailed information is often prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, this article derives a simple index of community welfare. Our index evaluates any proposed government project using a weighted geometric anticipated impact on: (1) per capita wealth less the weighted proportion of individuals with various disabilities, and (2) per capita life expectancy adjusted to discount future years of life. Since the criterion measures the overall utility of society, it can also be used to compare quality of life in various countries. Copyright 1994 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 1994
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jrisku:v:9:y:1994:i:2:p:135-50

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