Changes in the Value of Life, 1940–1980

By Dora L. Costa, Matthew E. Kahn. 2004

197 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the first nationwide value of life estimates for the United States at more than one point in time. Our estimates are for every ten years between 1940 and 1980, a period when declines in fatal accident rates were historically unprecedented. Our estimated elasticity of value of life with respect to per capita GNP is 1.5 to 1.7. We illustrate the importance of rising value of life for policy evaluation by examining the benefits of improved longevity since 1900. Our estimated elasticity implies that the current marginal increase in longevity is more valuable than the large increase in the first half of the twentieth century.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Decision Sciences, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/26bd6e0c23c0c2c30089e2b12da10748c226ac80

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Citations in the corpus

Towards a system of open cities in China: Home prices, FDI flows and air quality in 35 major cities (2009, result): “While this is a short time series, this result is consistent with work by Costa and Kahn (2004) that the disamenity capitalization grows as per-capita income grows.”
Real Estate Valuation and Cross-Boundary Air Pollution Externalities: Evidence from Chinese Cities (2013, background): “Costa and Kahn (2004) argue based on U.S evidence that the statistical value of life rises faster than per-capita income growth.”
Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment: Recent Developments (2006, background): “The only available time-series study, by Costa and Kahn (2002) for the USA, suggests that the VOSL has risen considerably in the period 1940-1980, with an implied elasticity of VOSL with respect to per capita GDP of 1.5 to 1.7.”
The Income Elasticity of the Value per Statistical Life: Transferring Estimates between High and Low Income Populations (2011, background): “They find income elasticities ranging from 2.0 to 3.0 based on per capita GNP. Costa and Kahn (2004) consider changes in the wage-risk relationship between 1940 and 1980 in the U.S., as earnings increased and job-related risks declined over time.”
Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models: Understanding and summarizing the fitted models (2006, background): “According to Cramer (2003, chapter 9), logistic regression was introduced for binary data in the mid-twentieth century and has become increasingly popular as computational improvements have allowed it to become a routine data-analytic tool. For more on income and voting in presidential elections, se”
The role of public health improvements in health advances: The twentieth-century United States (2005, background): “The elasticity of the value of life with respect to the per capita gross national product has been estimated as between 1.5 and 1.7 (Costa and Kahn 2002).”
The Value of a Statistical Life (2019, methodology): “Using labor market approximations from 1940 to 1980, Costa and Kahn (2004) estimate an income elasticity of the VSL of 1.5 to 1.7.”