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Like it or not, sometimes we need to put a monetary value on people's lives. In the past, government agencies used the financial cost of death to monetize the mortality risks of regulatory policies, but this method vastly undervalued life. Pricing Lives tells the story of how the government came to adopt an altogether different approach--the value of a statistical life, or VSL- and persuasively shows how its widespread adoption could result in a safer and more equitable society for everyone. Pricing Lives proposes sensible economic guideposts to foster more protective policies and greater levels of safety in the United States and throughout the world.
About the author
W. Kip Viscusi is the University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics, and Management at Vanderbilt University. His many books include Economics of Regulation and Antitrust and Fatal Tradeoffs: Public and Private Responsibilities for Risk.
Summary
How society's undervaluing of life puts all of us at risk-and the groundbreaking economic measure that can fix itLike it or not, sometimes we need to put a monetary value on people's lives. In the past, government agencies used the financial "cost of death" to monetize the mortality risks of regulatory policies, but this method vastly undervalu
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"Pricing Lives is a non-technical and very informative book. I strongly recommend the book to all that in their professions must handle decisions affecting human lives. I cannot think of a more valuable treatise on this timely subject."---Per-Olov Johansson, Journal of Economics
Report
"From probably the world's leading thinker on the valuation of mortality risks, Pricing Lives makes a fundamental, enduring contribution."--Cass Sunstein, Harvard Law School
