Valuing safety: principal limitations of the J-value model

During recent years, advocates of the so-called 'J-value' approach to the valuation of safety in the UK have argued that the value of preventing a statistical fatality (VPF) employed by a number of UK public sector bodies is too low and should be replaced with the higher value of safety implied by the J-value model. However, a recent review of the J-value literature commissioned by the UK Health and Safety Executive concluded that the model underpinning the J-value approach is 'too simplistic'. In particular, the review argues that the approach's exclusive focus on the impact on the remaining life expectancy of those who benefit from the improvement is too narrow to capture adequately the effect of all of the key factors that should be considered in valuing a safety improvement. The purpose of this paper is to consider this and other basic limitations of the J-value approach in more detail.