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Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 2007 1(2):283-299; doi:10.1093/reep/rem018
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Copyright © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.

Policy Monitor

How US Government Agencies Value Mortality Risk Reductions

Lisa A. Robinson*

* Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard University

Robinson@hsph.harvard.edu

Lisa.A.Robinson@comcast.net

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


   Introduction
 
Each year, US government agencies promulgate health and safety regulations that impose hundreds of millions of dollars of costs on the national economy. A key issue in developing these regulations is determining whether the value of the associated risk reductions and other benefits exceeds the value of the resources diverted from other purposes. This article explores one component of this benefit-cost comparison: the approaches used by federal agencies to estimate the value of changes in the risk of premature mortality.

After introducing key concepts, the article describes current federal agency practices. It first summarizes US government-wide guidelines for valuing mortality risk reductions and then discusses the practices of individual agencies in more detail. It focuses largely on the approaches used by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA is responsible for a substantial proportion of all federal life-saving regulations, and mortality risk reductions account for the majority of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   Key Concepts
 
The Value of Statistical Life
The Value of a Statistical Life Year

   Government-wide Guidance
 
Current OMB Guidance
The "Senior Discount" Debate

   The EPA's Approach
 
The EPA's Base Estimates
The EPA's Adjustments for Scenario Differences
Age Adjustments
Income Adjustments
Time Lag Adjustments

   Approaches Used by Other Agencies
 
The HHS Agencies (the FDA and the CMS)
The DOT Agencies (the NHTSA and the FMSCA)

   Summary and Conclusions
 

   Appendix Table A1:Selected characteristics of VSL studies used by the EPA (1990 dollars)
 

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