IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ess/wpaper/id1708.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring the Value of Life and Limb: Estimating Compensating Wage Differentials Among Workers in Chennai and Mumbai

Author

Listed:
  • S. Madheswaran

Abstract

Policy makers confronted with the need to introduce health and safty regulations often wonder how to value the benifites of these regulations. One way that a monetory value could be placed on reductions in health risks, including risk of death, is through understanding how people are compensated for the different risks they take. This approch reffered to as the compensating wage differentials method, estimates the wage premium a worker would need to be paid to accept a small increase in his/her risk of dying or equivalently what a worker would pay to achieve a small reduction in risk of death. The study is an attempt of obtaining estimates of VSL that reflects Indian risk preference. [SANDEE]

Suggested Citation

  • S. Madheswaran, 2008. "Measuring the Value of Life and Limb: Estimating Compensating Wage Differentials Among Workers in Chennai and Mumbai," Working Papers id:1708, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:1708
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eSocialSciences.com/data/articles/Document16102008310.1367609.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moore, Michael J & Viscusi, W Kip, 1988. "The Quantity-Adjusted Value of Life," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(3), pages 369-388, July.
    2. Viscusi, W Kip & Moore, Michael J, 1987. "Workers' Compensation: Wage Effects, Benefit Inadequacies, and the Value of Health Losses," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(2), pages 249-261, May.
    3. Cousineau, Jean-Michel & Lacroix, Robert & Girard, Anne-Marie, 1992. "Occupational Hazard and Wage Compensating Differentials," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(1), pages 166-169, February.
    4. Shanmugam, K R, 2001. "Self Selection Bias in the Estimates of Compensating Differentials for Job Risks in India," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 263-275, May.
    5. Craig A. Olson, 1981. "An Analysis of Wage Differentials Received by Workers on Dangerous Jobs," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 16(2), pages 167-185.
    6. Joni Hersch & W. Kip Viscusi, 1990. "Cigarette Smoking, Seatbelt Use, and Differences in Wage-Risk Tradeoffs," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(2), pages 202-227.
    7. Viscusi, W Kip, 1978. "Wealth Effects and Earnings Premiums for Job Hazards," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(3), pages 408-416, August.
    8. French, Michael T & Kendall, David L, 1992. "The Value of Job Safety for Railroad Workers," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 175-185, May.
    9. Richard Thaler & Sherwin Rosen, 1976. "The Value of Saving a Life: Evidence from the Labor Market," NBER Chapters, in: Household Production and Consumption, pages 265-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Brown, Charles & Medoff, James, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1027-1059, October.
    11. Herzog, Henry W, Jr & Schlottmann, Alan M, 1990. "Valuing Risk in the Workplace: Market Price, Willingness to Pay, and the Optimal Provision of Safety," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(3), pages 463-470, August.
    12. Linnerooth, Joanne, 1979. "The Value of Human Life: A Review of the Models," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 17(1), pages 52-74, January.
    13. Gerking, Shelby & de Haan, Menno & Schulze, William, 1988. "The Marginal Value of Job Safety: A Contingent Valuation Study," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 185-199, June.
    14. Jones-Lee, M W & Hammerton, M & Philips, P R, 1985. "The Value of Safety: Results of a National Sample Survey," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 95(377), pages 49-72, March.
    15. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    16. Viscusi, W Kip & O'Connor, Charles J, 1984. "Adaptive Responses to Chemical Labeling: Are Workers Bayesian Decision Makers?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(5), pages 942-956, December.
    17. Kniesner, Thomas J & Leeth, John D, 1991. "Compensating Wage Differentials for Fatal Injury Risk in Australia, Japan, and the United States," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 75-90, January.
    18. Marin, Alan & Psacharopoulos, George, 1982. "The Reward for Risk in the Labor Market: Evidence from the United Kingdom and a Reconciliation with Other Studies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(4), pages 827-853, August.
    19. Alberini, Anna & Cropper, Maureen & Fu, Tsu-Tan & Krupnick, Alan & Liu, Jin-Tan & Shaw, Daigee & Harrington, Winston, 1997. "Valuing Health Effects of Air Pollution in Developing Countries: The Case of Taiwan," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 107-126, October.
    20. Garen, John, 1988. "Compensating Wage Differentials and the Endogeneity of Job Riskiness," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(1), pages 9-16, February.
    21. Dillingham, Alan E, 1985. "The Influence of Risk Variable Definition on Value-of-Life Estimates," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(2), pages 277-294, April.
    22. Charles Brown, 1980. "Equalizing Differences in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 113-134.
    23. Simon, Nathalie B. & Cropper, Maureen L. & Alberini, Anna & Arora, Seema, 1999. "Valuing mortality reductions in India : a study of compensating wage differentials," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2078, The World Bank.
    24. Pradeep Kumar & Mary Lou Coates, 1982. "Occupational Earnings, Compensating Differentials, and Human Capital: An Empirical Study," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 15(3), pages 442-457, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. S. Madheswaran, 2007. "Measuring the value of statistical life: estimating compensating wage differentials among workers in India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 84(1), pages 83-96, October.
    2. Viscusi, W Kip & Aldy, Joseph E, 2003. "The Value of a Statistical Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates throughout the World," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 5-76, August.
    3. Georges Dionne & Paul Lanoie, 2002. "How to Make a Public Choice About the Value of a Statistical Life: The Case of Road Safety," Cahiers de recherche 02-04, HEC Montréal, Institut d'économie appliquée.
    4. Viscusi, W Kip, 1993. "The Value of Risks to Life and Health," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1912-1946, December.
    5. K. Shanmugam, 2000. "Valuations of Life and Injury Risks," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 16(4), pages 379-389, August.
    6. Dionne, Georges & Lebeau, Martin, 2010. "Le calcul de la valeur statistique d’une vie humaine," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 86(4), pages 487-530, décembre.
    7. Bellavance, Franois & Dionne, Georges & Lebeau, Martin, 2009. "The value of a statistical life: A meta-analysis with a mixed effects regression model," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 444-464, March.
    8. Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2004. "Changes in the Value of Life, 1940--1980," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 159-180, September.
    9. Courard-Hauri David & Lauer Stephen A., 2012. "Taking "All Men Are Created Equal" Seriously: Toward a Metric for the Intergroup Comparison of Utility Functions Through Life Values," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 1-30, August.
    10. Danielle Lamb & Rafael Gomez & Milad Moghaddas, 2022. "Unions and hazard pay for COVID‐19: Evidence from the Canadian Labour Force Survey," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 606-634, September.
    11. Andrea Baranzini & Giovanni Ferro Luzzi, 2001. "The Economic Value of Risks to Life: Evidence from the Swiss Labour Market," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 137(II), pages 149-170, June.
    12. Muhammad Rafiq & Mir Kalan Shah, 2010. "The Value of Reduced Risk of Injury and Deaths in Pakistan—Using Actual and Perceived Risk Estimates," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 49(4), pages 823-837.
    13. Marios Michaelides, 2010. "A New Test of Compensating Differences: Evidence on the Importance of Unobserved Heterogeneity," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 11(5), pages 475-495, October.
    14. Marcela Parada-Contzen & Andrés Riquelme-Won & Felipe Vasquez-Lavin, 2013. "The value of a statistical life in Chile," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 1073-1087, December.
    15. Tadashi Sakai & Naomi Miyazato, 2014. "Who values the family-friendly aspects of a job? Evidence from the Japanese labour market," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 397-413, September.
    16. Nikolaos Georgantzis & Efi Vasileiou, 2014. "Are Dangerous Jobs Paid Better? European Evidence," Research in Labor Economics, in: New Analyses of Worker Well-Being, volume 38, pages 163-192, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    17. Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2010. "An Inquiry Into The Theory, Causes And Consequences Of Monitoring Indicators Of Health And Safety At Work," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-120, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    18. Krupnick, Alan & Alberini, Anna & Cropper, Maureen & Simon, Nathalie & O'Brien, Bernie & Goeree, Ron & Heintzelman, Martin, 2002. "Age, Health and the Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions: A Contingent Valuation Survey of Ontario Residents," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 161-186, March.
    19. Zac Reynolds & Daehoon Nahm & Craig MacMillan, 2022. "Compensating Wage Differentials for Job Fatality and Injury Risk in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(321), pages 152-165, June.
    20. Paul Miller & Charles Mulvey & Keith Norris, 1997. "Compensating Differentials for Risk of Death in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 73(223), pages 363-372, December.

    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:ess:wpaper:id:1708. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Padma Prakash (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.esocialsciences.org .

    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.