On the Definition and Age-Dependency of the Value of a Statistical Life. A Review and Extension

Per-Olov Johansson ()
Additional contact information
Per-Olov Johansson: Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden

No 490, SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics

Abstract: The value of preventing a fatality or (saving) a statistical life is an important question in health economics as well as environmental economics. This paper reviews and adds new insights to several of the issues discussed in the literature. For example, how do we define the value of a (statistical) life? Are there really strong theoretical reasons for believing that the value of a life declines with age? The paper derives definitions of the value of a statistical life in both single-period models and life-cycle models. Models with and without actuarially fair annuities are examined, as well as the age-profile of the value of a statistical life.

Keywords: Value of a statistical life; value of preventing a fatality; age-specific values; willingness to pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C61 D61 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2002-01-25, Revised 2002-01-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias, nep-mic and nep-pke
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0490.pdf (application/pdf)

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:hhs:hastef:0490

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics The Economic Research Institute, Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, 113 83 Stockholm, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Helena Lundin ().