Valuing fatal risks to children and adults: Effects of disease, latency, and risk aversion

Hammitt, James K.; Haninger, Kevin

doi:10.1007/s11166-009-9086-9

Cited by 154 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Hammitt and Liu (2004) directly test the effects of disease type and latency and find that while latency (20 years) has a significant effect on willingness to pay for risk reductions, there is no statistically significant effect of cancer. 5 Hammitt and Haninger (2010) find no significant difference between the values of risk reductions for cancer compared to any other cause, including road accidents, in the US. Adamowicz et al (2011) find that cancer risk reductions are in fact valued less than microbial disease risk reductions.…”

Section: Context Latency and Cancer Risksmentioning

confidence: 87%

Dread and latency impacts on a VSL for cancer risk reductions

et al. 2016

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We propose a structural relationship between the value of preventing a statistical cancer fatality and the value of statistical life (VSL) for risks of an instantaneous road accident fatality. This relationship incorporates a context effect reflecting both the illness or 'morbidity' associated with cancer fatality and the 'dread' or horror associated with the prospect of eventual death from cancer, as well as a latency effect that captures the discounting likely to arise because the onset of the symptoms of cancer typically occurs after some delay. We use a Risk-Risk trade-off study to validate this model by directly estimating the influence of context and latency effects upon the relative size of the VSL for cancer and for road accidents, confirming that both effects are significant and estimating their size using regression analysis. We show that morbidity accounts for the majority of the context premium. We use the elicited coefficients to reconstruct VSL estimates for a range of cancers characterised by their latency and morbidity periods.

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Section: Context Latency and Cancer Risksmentioning

confidence: 87%

Dread and latency impacts on a VSL for cancer risk reductions

et al. 2016

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“…Hammitt and Haninger (2010) presented subjects with a risk context involving pesticide residues on food. The substantive economic issues of interest pertained to respondents' willingness to pay for reductions in the risk of death and trauma to the adults and children in the household.…”

Section: Overview Of Conference Papers In This Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

The heterogeneity of the value of statistical life: Introduction and overview

Viscusi

2009

J Risk Uncertain

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The refinement in worker fatality risk data used in hedonic wage studies and evidence from new stated preference studies have facilitated the exploration of the heterogeneity of the value of statistical life (VSL). Although the median VSL estimate for workers is $7-$8 million, the VSL varies considerably within the worker population. New estimates of the income elasticity of VSL are 1.0 or above, which are consistent with theoretical models linking VSL to the coefficient of relative risk aversion. The specific relationship between VSL and risk aversion is, however, more complex than previously understood. Age differences in VSL are substantial, with young children being accorded especially high VSL amounts. The public's willingness to pay to reduce risks is reduced if those being protected are perceived as being blameworthy due to their responsibility for contributing to the risk.Keywords Value of statistical life . Fatality risk . VSL . Income elasticity . Blame . Children JEL Classification I10 . J17 . J28 . K00 . C23The value of statistical life (VSL) is not a natural constant. Individuals' risk-money tradeoffs vary across the population and also vary over time for particular individuals as their age and economic circumstances change. The heterogeneity of VSL has become more prominent both in terms of economics research and risk policy. Much of the research on the heterogeneity of VSL has been stimulated by the J Risk Uncertain (2010) 40:1-13

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“…Regarding health risks SP methods have been used to evaluate a wide range of risks, e.g. contaminated water (Adamowicz, Dupont et al 2011), road safety (Andersson and Svensson 2008), and cancer (Hammitt and Haninger 2010). The SP approach offers flexibility in creating specific markets of interests and allows the analysts to control the decision alternatives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Valuation of small and multiple health risks: A critical analysis of SP data applied to food and water safety

Andersson

Hole

Svensson

2016

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

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This study elicits individual preferences for reducing morbidity and mortality risk in the context of an infectious disease (campylobacter) using choice experiments. Respondents are in the survey asked to choose between different policies that, in addition to the two health risks, also vary with respect to source of disease being targeted (food or water), when the policy takes place (in time), and the monetary cost. Our results in our baseline model are in line with expectations; respondents prefer the benefits of the program sooner than later, programs that reduce both the mortality and morbidity risk, and less costly programs. Moreover, our results suggest that respondents prefer water-compared with food-safety programs. However, a main objective of this study is to examine scope sensitivity of mortality risk reductions using a novel approach. Our results from a split-sample design suggest that the value of the mortality risk reduction, defined as the value of a statistical life, is SEK 3 177 (USD 483 million) and SEK 50 million (USD 8 million), respectively, in our two sub-samples. This result cast doubt on the standard scope sensitivity tests in choice experiments, and the results also cast doubt on the validity and reliability of VSL estimates based on stated preference (and revealed preference) studies in general. This is important due to the large empirical literature on non-market evaluation and the elicited values' central role in policy making, such as benefit-cost analysis.

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Valuing fatal risks to children and adults: Effects of disease, latency, and risk aversion

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

Cited by 154 publications

References 40 publications

Dread and latency impacts on a VSL for cancer risk reductions

Dread and latency impacts on a VSL for cancer risk reductions

The heterogeneity of the value of statistical life: Introduction and overview

Valuation of small and multiple health risks: A critical analysis of SP data applied to food and water safety

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