In recent decades, economic theory has extended its field of application to non-market goods such as environmental resources and health. While it is difficult to assign a price to these goods on the basis of market mechanisms alone, the fact that they have no price does not mean they have no value. Economists have shown a marked interest in the contingent valuation method (CVM) technique, which has mainly been used to assign a monetary value to environmental goods. It was first applied to natural resources used for recreational purposes. CVM has been applied to health only recently, so studies in this field are somewhat more scarce than those dealing with the environment, although several valuation methodology surveys are available. This book draws together and analyzes recent CVs in the field of transportation accidents, and provides an overview of the experiments conducted in Europe. While a number of contributions are critical, others show how the estimates obtained in the area of road transport can be used to assess the adverse health effects of other causes, such as public transport accidents or air pollution. (Author/publisher)
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