Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Regulation
Publication Date
Summer 2023
ISSN
1931-0668
Page Number
11
Keywords
mortality risk, regulation, labor market
Disciplines
Health Law and Policy | Law
Abstract
The rise of interest in evidence-based policymaking has created incentives for regulatory agencies to demonstrate the overall benefit-cost merits of their policies. An agency can use evidence to choose more cost-beneficial policies, or it can create the appearance of desirable policies by changing the ground rules by which it assesses a policy's merits.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently chose the latter course when monetizing the benefit of mortality risk reductions for children from a proposed safety standard for operating cords on custom window coverings. The cords are currently estimated to be responsible for nine fatal injuries annually. Each of those deaths is a tragedy, but together their loss as measured by typical value of a statistical life (VSL) estimates would not justify the cost of the proposed standard. Instead of accepting that calculus, the CPSC changed its policymaking rules to double-and considers tripling-the VSL to analyze the proposed rule.
Recommended Citation
W. Kip Viscusi,
Is a Child's Life Twice as Valuable as an Adult's?, 46 Regulation. 11
(2023)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/1403