Mortality risk valuation in environment, health and transport policies.

The idea of associating a monetary value with human life is very challenging and can seem insensitive or harsh. Life is indeed priceless, at least when considered from the complex perspective of an individual. However, policy makers are regularly devising policies and regulations that affect people’s risk of death and that seek to protect lives in society, and require methodologies for comparing the costs of reducing risk with the expected benefits in terms of lives saved. The analysis presented in this report will help policy makers get a better measure of such benefits.The report takes stock of surveys from around the world where people have been asked about their willingness to pay for a small reduction in mortality risk, and analyses the variation in the estimates resulting from differences in study designs (including the way risk changes are displayed), characteristics of risk (type and size of risk changes, baseline risks, etc.), socio-economic characteristics (age, income, gender, health status, etc.), and other variables.The report offers guidance on how the findings of the analysis can be included in future assessments of policies that affect mortality risks. Such assessments will need to take into account the income level in the given country, as well as characteristics of the risk change in question and the population affected by it. Such guidance will help to improve the information base upon which important decisions are taken on mortality risks faced by society. The book presents a major meta-analysis of 'value of a statistical life' (VSL) estimates derived from surveys where people around the world have been asked about their willingness to pay for small reduction in mortality risks. The analysis seeks to explain the differences in the estimates, for example across countries. Differences in incomes and the magintude of the risk reduction people have been asked to value were found to be the factors having the strongest impact on VSL, but a number of other policy-relevant factors are also important. Based on the meta-analysis, and a broad review of the literature, the book also presents clear advice on how VSL values best can be used in assessments of environmental, health and transport policies, such as in cost-benefit analyses. Using explicit VSL estimates to quantify the benefits to society of fatality risk reductions can play an important role in the development of more cost-effective public policies. (Author/publisher)