ROY MODEL SORTING AND NONRANDOM SELECTION IN THE VALUATION OF A STATISTICAL LIFE

Thomas DeLeire (), Shakeeb Khan and Christopher Timmins

International Economic Review, 2013, vol. 54, issue 1, 279-306

Abstract: Wage‐hedonics is used to recover the value of a statistical life (VSL) by exploiting the fact that workers choosing riskier occupations are compensated with a higher wage. Roy (Oxford Economic Papers 3 (1951), 135–46) suggests that observed wage distributions will be distorted if individuals choose jobs according to idiosyncratic returns. We describe how this type of sorting biases wage‐hedonic VSL estimates and implement two new estimation strategies that correct that bias. Using data from the Current Population Surveys, we recover VSL estimates that are three to four times larger than those based on the traditional techniques, statistically significant, and robust to a wide array of specifications.

Date: 2013
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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2354.2012.00733.x

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Working Paper: Roy Model Sorting and Non-Random Selection in the Valuation of a Statistical Life (2008)
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