What is the meaning of (statistical) life? Benefit–cost analysis in the time of COVID-19

Jonathan Colmer ()

Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2020, vol. 36, issue Supplement_1, S56-S63

Abstract: Efforts to support public policy decisions need to be conducted carefully and thoughtfully. Recent efforts to estimate the social benefits of reductions in mortality risks associated with COVID-19 interventions are likely understated. There are large uncertainties over how much larger the social benefits could be. This raises questions about how helpful conventional approaches to valuing mortality and morbidity risks for benefit–cost analyses can be in contexts such as the current crisis.

Keywords: value of a statistical life; benefit-cost analysis; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oxrep/graa022 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:oxford:v:36:y:2020:i:supplement_1:p:s56-s63.

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Review of Economic Policy is currently edited by Christopher Adam

More articles in Oxford Review of Economic Policy from Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().