Valuing mortality risk reductions at present and at advanced age: preliminary results from a contingent valuation study in Chile

摘要: The application of policies to reduce environmental pollution has important social costs and benefits associated. To conduct a proper cost benefit analysis and maximize social benefits, it becomes necessary to quantify as accurately as possible both the costs and the benefits. Generally, the biggest benefits correspond to improvements in the health of the population exposed to pollutants. Amongst these effects, avoiding premature deaths is doubtless the most relevant social effect. To correctly price these effects, one has to know the population’s Willingness to Pay (WTP) to reduce mortality risk due to the effects of pollution. Usually, this Willingness to Pay is expressed as the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL), which is the sum of WTPs for small risk reductions in such a manner that the total is equivalent to one avoided premature death.Obtaining society’s WTP for risk reductions is complicated, because there is not a market for such goods. This is why indirect methods have been developed to value them. One of these methods is based on the individuals Willingness to Pay for goods that increase life expectancy, such as smoke detectors, the use of safety belts, or the purchasing of cars equipped with air bags, for example. Another indirect method, that of hedonic wages, is based on compensations demanded in wages to accept jobs with different levels of risk. Both methods present problems. The problem of the safety goods market is that the benefits exceed the costs for many people, apart from potentially overestimating the WTP due to the fact that those people most adverse to risk generally acquire these goods. On the other hand, Willingness to …