Value of statistical life, Cancer, Stated preference, Pesticide, Children, D61, D64, H43, I18, Q18, Q51,

REATED IN 1994, THE ENTERtainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rates video games with age-based rating symbols and content descriptors, which game manufacturers display on the game box to inform consumer choices. Game manufacturers submit videotaped game footage and other information to the ESRB for rating and 3 trained ESRB raters each independently review the materials to determine the agebased rating and content descriptors he/ she believes are appropriate. 1 We previously characterized the content of video games rated E (for "Everyone"). 2 We applied the same methods to characterize the content of video games rated T (for "Teen"). According to the ESRB, T-rated video games may be suitable for persons aged 13 years or older and may contain violence, mild or strong language, and/or suggestive themes. 1 Video games represent a multibilliondollar industry and a major source of entertainment for children and adolescents. A national study of media use found that 52% of 2-to 7-year-olds and 82% of 8-to 18-year-olds live in homes with at least 1 video game console. 3 Children and adolescents who play video games on any given day spend more than an hour playing them. 3 Other studies document similar usage patterns and further observe that parents are less likely to supervise video games than other entertainment media. 4 Unfortunately, little information exists about the ratings and genres of video games played by children of different ages, sex, family income level, and ethnicity. Consequently, the number and characteristics of children who play Trated video games remain uncertain, al-Author Affiliations are listed at the end of this article.

We design and conduct a stated-preference survey to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce foodborne risk of acute illness and to test whether WTP is proportional to the corresponding gain in expected quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). If QALYs measure utility for health, then economic theory requires WTP to be nearly proportional to changes in both health quality and duration of illness and WTP could be estimated by multiplying the expected change in QALYs by an appropriate monetary value. WTP is elicited using double-bounded, dichotomous-choice questions in which respondents (randomly selected from the U.S. general adult population, n = 2,858) decide whether to purchase a more expensive food to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Health risks vary by baseline probability of illness, reduction in probability, duration and severity of illness, and conditional probability of mortality. The expected gain in QALYs is calculated using respondent-assessed decrements in health-related quality of life if ill combined with the duration of illness and reduction in probability specified in the survey. We find sharply diminishing marginal WTP for severity and duration of illness prevented. Our results suggest that individuals do not have a constant rate of WTP per QALY, which implies that WTP cannot be accurately estimated by multiplying the change in QALYs by an appropriate monetary value.