Compensating Differentials for Occupational Health and Safety Risks: Implications of Recend Evidence
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Research in Labor Economics
Publication Date
1-2023
ISSN
0147-9121
Page Number
83
Keywords
value of statistical life, mortality risk, benefit-cost analysis
Disciplines
Health Law and Policy | Law
Abstract
The most enduring measure of how individuals make personal decisions affecting their health and safety is the compensating wage differential for job safety risk revealed in the labor market via hedonic equilibrium outcomes. The decisions in turn reveal the value of a statistical life (VSL), the value of a statistical injury (VSI), and the value of a statistical life year (VSLY), which have both mortality and morbidity aspects that we describe and apply here. All such tradeoff rates play important roles in policy decisions concerning improving individual welfare. Specifically, we explicate the recent empirical research on VSL and its related concepts and link the empirical results to the ongoing examinations of many government policies intended to improve individuals' health and longevity. We pay special attention to recent issues such as the COVID pandemic and newly emerging foci on distributional consequences concerning which demographic groups may benefit most from certain regulations.
Recommended Citation
W. Kip Viscusi and Thomas J. Kniesner,
Compensating Differentials for Occupational Health and Safety Risks: Implications of Recend Evidence, 50 Research in Labor Economics. 83
(2023)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/1526