Valuing Statistical Lives: Concepts, Current Practices, and Challenges
2020
Many policies aim to improve longevity, decreasing the risk of death in each year, and the value of these risk reductions often dominate the estimated benefits of risk regulations and other policies. This value is often expressed as the value per statistical life (VSL), a term that is widely misunderstood. It is not the value that the analyst, the government, or the individual places on saving an identified life with certainty. Instead, it reflects individuals’ willingness to exchange their own money for a small change in their own risk, such as a 1 in 10,000 decrease in the chance of dying in a specific year. In this webinar, CHDS researcher Lisa A. Robinson discusses the conceptual framework that underlies the VSL, the empirical methods used to estimate it, and the default values recommended for application in different settings, as well as key challenges.
Access the video. Valuing Statistical Lives: Concepts, Current Practices, and Challenges (~25 min)
Valuing Statistical Lives: Concepts, Current Practices, and Challenges
Source:
Robinson LA. Valuing Statistical Lives: Concepts, Current Practices, and Challenges. Center for Health Decision Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 2020. https://vimeo.com/390286236