Value of statistical life: Adults versus children

Leung, Joanne; Guria, Jagadish C.

doi:10.1016/j.aap.2006.05.009

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Moreover, Liu et al (2000), Dickie and Messman (2004) and Chanel and Luchini (2005) found that mothers and parents were willing to pay more for the safety of their children than for their own safety, Dickie and Gerking (2007) that parents were paternalistic altruists towards their children, and Bateman and Brouwer (2006) and Chanel and Luchini (2005) that WTP for the entire household is larger than individual WTP. 4 However, Leung and Guria (2006) found the opposite for household WTP, with single household having the highest WTP and inconclusive results regarding WTP for child safety. It also seems that most of the empirical evidence shows that individuals are not prepared to pay as much for a public safety measure as for a private measure, even though there is also evidence of the opposite (Viscusi et al, 1988;Johannesson et al, 1996;Araña and León, 2002;de Blaeij et al, 2003;Hultkrantz et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Benevolence and the value of road safety

Andersson

Lindberg

2009

Accident Analysis & Prevention

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This study uses the contingent valuation method to elicit individuals' preferences for their own and others' safety in road-traffic. Whereas one group is asked about a private safety device for themselves, other groups are asked about safety devices for their children, household, relatives and the public. Support is found for the hypothesis that individuals are not purely selfish when it comes the safety of others.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Benevolence and the value of road safety

Andersson

Lindberg

2009

Accident Analysis & Prevention

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“…A further area of debate in economic studies is how to value the loss of a life, as well as non-fatal outcomes such as the loss of function and lifetime sequelae of illness, especially for children [24,32,52-54]. There is some evidence that people may value a young person’s life more than an older person’s one [54,55].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cost of child health inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand: a preliminary scoping study

2012

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BackgroundHealth inequalities have been extensively documented, internationally and in New Zealand. The cost of reducing health inequities is often perceived as high; however, recent international studies suggest the cost of “doing nothing” is itself significant. This study aimed to develop a preliminary estimate of the economic cost of health inequities between Māori (indigenous) and non-Māori children in New Zealand.MethodsStandard quantitative epidemiological methods and “cost of illness” methodology were employed, within a Kaupapa Māori theoretical framework. Data were obtained from national data collections held by the New Zealand Health Information Service and other health sector agencies.ResultsPreliminary estimates suggest child health inequities between Māori and non-Māori in New Zealand are cost-saving to the health sector. However the societal costs are significant. A conservative “base case” scenario estimate is over $NZ62 million per year, while alternative costing methods yield larger costs of nearly $NZ200 million per annum. The total cost estimate is highly sensitive to the costing method used and Value of Statistical Life applied, as the cost of potentially avoidable deaths of Māori children is the major contributor to this estimate.ConclusionsThis preliminary study suggests that health sector spending is skewed towards non-Māori children despite evidence of greater Māori need. Persistent child health inequities result in significant societal economic costs. Eliminating child health inequities, particularly in primary care access, could result in significant economic benefits for New Zealand. However, there are conceptual, ethical and methodological challenges in estimating the economic cost of child health inequities. Re-thinking of traditional economic frameworks and development of more appropriate methodologies is required.

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“…One can seriously debate if even doing research into the WTP of children for risks is morally acceptable. One could argue that what then matters is the WTP of their parents (Leung and Guria 2006). But suppose a 10 year old child lost her parents.…”

Section: An Overview Of Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using value of statistical life for the ex ante evaluation of transport policy options: a discussion based on ethical theory

Wee

Rietveld

2012

Transportation

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This paper aims to discuss a number of questions that are highly important for the ex ante evaluation of the safety impacts of transport policy options, from the perspective of ethical theory: (1) Is it morally OK to express prevention on acceptance of fatalities or risks in monetary terms? (2) How useful is the concept of the value of a statistical life (VOSL) for ex ante evaluations of transport policy options? (3) What are the pros and cons of pricing protection of lives or prevention of risks in ex ante evaluations? (4) Which methods are available for expressing (protection of) human lives in monetary terms, and what are the main related methodological discussions? (5) Are all safety-related costs generally included in ex ante evaluations of the safety impacts of transport policy options, and if not: what is the relevance of excluded costs categories from an ethical perspective? (6) How important is the distribution of safety effects from an ethical perspective? The answer to the first question highly depends on the ethical theory that is used. With respect to question 2 we think that the VOSL is a useful concept, but that its application is not straightforward, for several reasons. Thirdly we think that probably pricing safety improves the quality of decision making, but to the best of our knowledge there is no research to underpin this expectation. The answer to question 4 is that several methods exist to estimate the value of a statistical life (VOSL), willingness-to-pay (WTP) methods being the most common category of methods. However, several methodological issues arise that make estimates of VOSL less straightforward. With respect to question 5 we conclude that behaviour-related avoidance costs are often overlooked and that these costs are relevant from an ethical perspective because the freedom to move and the freedom to participate in activities are challenged. Finally the answer to question 6 is that from an ethical perspective, in terms of the evaluation of policy measures, it might matter which groups of the population are the victims of the transport system, or are at risk.

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Value of statistical life: Adults versus children

Cited by 23 publications

References 7 publications

Benevolence and the value of road safety

Benevolence and the value of road safety

The cost of child health inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand: a preliminary scoping study

Using value of statistical life for the ex ante evaluation of transport policy options: a discussion based on ethical theory

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