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The Mortality Cost Metric for the Costs of War

Author

Listed:
  • Viscusi W. Kip

    (University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management, Vanderbilt Law School, 131 21st Ave. South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA)

Abstract

Estimates of the costs of war include the financial costs and the lives that are lost. Using estimates of the value of a statistical life and the value of a statistical injury, the health losses can be converted to a common monetary metric and added to the budgetary costs. Counting the monetary value of the direct war-related fatalities and injuries plays a relatively greater role for the Vietnam War than for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. This article proposes an alternative war cost metric that also recognizes the lives that are also lost because economic resources are diverted to war efforts. All costs are converted to mortality costs using a measure of the mortality opportunity cost to the public of war-related expenditures. Recognition of these indirect mortality effects approximately triples the number of fatalities attributable to the post-9/11 wars. The relative role of these indirect mortality losses is less for the Vietnam War because of that war’s higher rate of fatalities compared to financial costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Viscusi W. Kip, 2019. "The Mortality Cost Metric for the Costs of War," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 25(3), pages 1-10, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:pepspp:v:25:y:2019:i:3:p:10:n:2
    DOI: 10.1515/peps-2019-0004
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Patrick Carlin & Brian E. Dixon & Kosali I. Simon & Ryan Sullivan & Coady Wing, 2022. "How Undervalued is the Covid-19 Vaccine? Evidence from Discrete Choice Experiments and VSL Benchmarks," NBER Working Papers 30118, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Arye L. Hillman, 2021. "Harming a favored side: an anomaly with supreme values and good intentions," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 275-285, March.
    3. Olga Yakusheva & Eline van den Broek-Altenburg & Gayle Brekke & Adam Atherly, 2022. "Lives saved and lost in the first six month of the US COVID-19 pandemic: A retrospective cost-benefit analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-12, January.
    4. Kniesner, Thomas J. & Sullivan, Ryan & Viscusi, W. Kip, 2024. "The Military VSL," IZA Discussion Papers 17441, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Laura Armey & Thomas J. Kniesner & John D. Leeth & Ryan Sullivan, 2022. "Combat, casualties, and compensation: Evidence from Iraq and Afghanistan," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 66-82, January.
    6. Tom Coupé & Maksym Obrizan, 2024. "War and Happiness," Working Papers in Economics 24/06, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mortality risk; opportunity cost; value of a statistical life; war;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War
    • J17 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Value of Life; Foregone Income

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