Pinning Down the Value of Statistical Life

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Thomas J. Kniesner, Syracuse UniversityFollow
W. Kip Viscusi
Christopher Woock
James P. Ziliak

Description/Abstract

Our research addresses fundamental long-standing concerns in the compensating wage differentials literature and its public policy implications: the econometric properties of estimates of the value of statistical life (VSL) and the wide range of such estimates from about $0.5 million to about $21 million. We address most of the prominent econometric issues by applying panel data, a new and more accurate fatality risk measure, and systematic selection of panel estimator in our research. Controlling for measurement error, endogeneity, individual heterogeneity, and state dependence yields both a reasonable average level and narrow range for the estimated value of a statistical life of about $5.5-$7.5 million.

Document Type

Working Paper

Date

2006

Keywords

public policy, value of statistical life, VSL, panel data, fatality risk measure

Language

English

Series

Working Papers Series

Disciplines

Labor Economics

Additional Information

Harvest from RePEc at http://repec.org

Recommended Citation

Kniesner, Thomas J.; Viscusi, W. Kip; Woock, Christopher; and Ziliak, James P., "Pinning Down the Value of Statistical Life" (2006). Center for Policy Research. 80.
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/80

Source

Metadata from RePEc

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.