Document Type
Article
Publication Title
The Review of Economics and Statistics
Publication Date
2008
ISSN
0034-6535
Page Number
573
Keywords
valuation of life, statistical life
Disciplines
Law | Law and Economics | Social Statistics
Abstract
To resolve the theoretical ambiguity in the effect of age on the value of statistical life (VSL), this article uses a novel, age-dependent fatal risk measure to estimate age-specific hedonic wage regressions. VSL exhibits an inverted-U shaped relationship with age. In the year 2000 cross-section, workers' VSL rises from $3.7 million (ages 18-24), to $9.7 million (35-44), and declines to $3.4 million (55-62). Controlling for birth-year cohort effects in a minimum distance estimator yields a peak VSL of $7.8 million at age 46, and flattens the VSL-age relationship. The value of statistical life-year also follows an inverted-U shape with age.
Recommended Citation
W. Kip Viscusi and Joseph E. Aldy,
Adjusting the Value of a Statistical Life for Age and Cohort Effects, 90 The Review of Economics and Statistics. 573
(2008)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/49