IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jbcoan/v13y2022i2p182-197_3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Value of Statistical Life: A Meta-Analysis of Meta-Analyses

Author

Listed:
  • Banzhaf, H. Spencer

Abstract

The value of statistical life (VSL) is arguably the most important number in benefit–cost analyses of environmental, health, and transportation policies. However, agencies have used a wide range of VSL values. One reason may be the embarrassment of riches when it comes to VSL studies. While meta-analysis is a standard way to synthesize information across studies, we now have multiple competing meta-analyses and reviews. Thus, to analysts, picking one such meta-analysis may feel as hard as picking a single “best study.” This article responds by taking the meta-analysis another step, estimating a meta-analysis (or mixture distribution) of seven meta-analyses. The baseline model yields a central VSL of $8.0 m, with a 90 % confidence interval of $2.4–$14.0 m. The provided code allows users to easily change subjective weights on the studies, add new studies, or change adjustments for income, inflation, and latency.

Suggested Citation

  • Banzhaf, H. Spencer, 2022. "The Value of Statistical Life: A Meta-Analysis of Meta-Analyses," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 182-197, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jbcoan:v:13:y:2022:i:2:p:182-197_3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2194588822000094/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alexander Cheung & Joseph Marchand & Patricia Mark, 2022. "Loss of Life and Labor Productivity: The Canadian Opioid Crisis," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 703(1), pages 303-323, September.
    2. Cardoso, Diego S. & Dahis, Ricardo, 2024. "Calculating the economic value of non-marginal mortality risk reductions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    3. Zubova, Ekaterina, 2022. "Value of statistical life in Russia: Estimates based on panel microdata for 2010–2020," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 65, pages 45-64.
    4. Bishop, Kelly C. & Kuminoff, Nicolai V. & Mathes, Sophie M. & Murphy, Alvin D., 2024. "The marginal cost of mortality risk reduction: Evidence from housing markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Amy B. Rosenstein & Treye Thomas & Igor Linkov & Christopher Cummings & Kelby Kramer & Jason Deng & Miriam Pollock & Jeffrey M. Keisler, 2024. "Development of a population attributable risk screening tool to estimate health consequences of consumer product exposure," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 280-292, June.
    6. Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth & Eric Edlund & Avanti Mukherjee, 2023. "Analysis of Hybrid Epidemiological-Economic Models of COVID-19 Mitigation Policies," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 585-612, October.
    7. Cropper, Maureen L. & Joiner, Emily & Krupnick, Alan, 2023. "Revisiting the Environmental Protection Agency's Value of a Statistical Life," RFF Working Paper Series 23-30, Resources for the Future.
    8. St-Amour, Pascal, 2024. "Valuing life over the life cycle," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    9. Peter Benczur & Virmantas Kvedaras & Nadir Preziosi, 2023. "Health-adjusted income: complementing GDP to reflect the valuation of life expectancy," JRC Research Reports JRC134152, Joint Research Centre.
    10. Liang Tan & Aochen Cao & Dongyang Qiu & Bolin Liang, 2023. "Life Value Assessment Methods in Emerging Markets: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-13, May.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J17 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Value of Life; Foregone Income
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jbcoan:v:13:y:2022:i:2:p:182-197_3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/bca .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.