Agricultural Economic Report No. (AER-784) 72 pp
Assigning Values to Life: Comparing Methods for Valuing Health Risks
An examination of five approaches economists and health policy analysts have developed for evaluating policy affecting health and safety: cost-of-illness, willingness-to-pay, cost-effectiveness analysis, risk-risk analysis, and health-health analysis. Also examines the theoretical basis and empirical application of each approach and investigates the influence that assumptions embedded in each approach have on policy guidance.
Keywords: health, safety, health policy, cost-of-illness, willingness-to-pay, cost-effectiveness analysis, risk-risk analysis, health-health analysis
In this publication...
- Entire Report
- Frontmatter (Title page, Contents, Executive Summary)
- Introduction
- Why Must Costs and Benefits Influence Health and Safety Choices?
- How Do We Measure Costs and Benefits for Health and Safety Intervention? An Introduction to the Methodologies
- Cost-of-Illness Approach
- Willingness-to-Pay Approach
- COI and WTP--Is There a Middle Ground?
- Refraining from Assigning Values to Life and Health: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
- Eliminating Dollars from Cost-Benefit Comparisons--Risk-Risk and Health-Health Analysis
- Conclusions
- References
- Appendix: Is COI a Lower Bound to WTP?