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Valuing Children's Fatality Risk Reductions

2019

This article addresses the valuation of fatality risk reductions that accrue to children. These risk changes are usually valued based on estimates of adults’ willingness to pay for changes in their own risks, regardless of whether the risk reduction accrues to adults or children. This approach reflects the relatively large number of valuation studies that address adults; however, the literature on children is growing. This article reviews these studies and finds that the ratio of values for children to values for adults ranges from 0.6 to 2.9; most estimates are greater than 1.5. Although some studies suggest that the divergence between child and adult values decreases as the child ages, this finding is not universal.

 

Source:

Robinson LA, Raich WJ, Hammitt JK et al. Valuing Children’s Fatality Risk Reductions. Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis 2019; 10 (2): 156-177. https://doi.org/10.1017/bca.2019.10

Not open access.