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The Value of Life and the Value of Population

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  • Broome, John

Abstract

This paper first distinguishes structured and unstructured approaches to valuing life. The unstructured approach bases its valuations on people's raw preferences, whereas the structured approach imposes a theoretical framework about the structure of value. The paper recommends the structured approach. This opens the way to considering the value of adding people to the population. The paper examines a common intuition that adding people is not in itself valuable, and explains the difficulties this intuition encounters.

Suggested Citation

  • Broome, John, 1996. "The Value of Life and the Value of Population," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 3-18, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:9:y:1996:i:1:p:3-18
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stephen A. Marglin, 1963. "The Social Rate of Discount and The Optimal Rate of Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 77(1), pages 95-111.
    2. Abraham Mehrez & Amiram Gafni, 1989. "Quality-adjusted Life Years, Utility Theory, and Healthy-years Equivalents," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 9(2), pages 142-149, June.
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