Did We Overestimate the Value of Health?
Abstract
Adam Smith's idea that wage differences reveal preferences for risk rests on strong theoretical foundations. This paper argues, however, that the dominant approach to identify compensating wage differentials--regressing individual wages on aggregate measures of risk--may lead to arbitrary estimates of these risk differentials. In a dataset with information on both, the incidence of illnesses or injuries across firms and industries, I calculate an implicit value of one injury or illness of about (1990) USD 18,800 pursuing the dominant approach. In contrast, regressing wages on the incidence of risk across firms produces a value of one injury or illness of about USD 11,300. Copyright 2003 by Kluwer Academic PublishersDownload Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.
Volume (Year): 27 (2003)
Issue (Month): 2 (October)
Pages: 171-93
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=100299
Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Rafael Lalive, . "Did we Overestimat the Value of Health?," IEW - Working Papers 060, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
- J17 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Value of Life; Foregone Income
- J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Xiangdong Wei, 2007. "Wage compensation for job-related illness: Evidence from a matched employer and employee survey in the UK," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 85-98, February.
- Del Bono, Emilia & Weber, Andrea, 2006.
"Do Wages Compensate for Anticipated Working Time Restrictions? Evidence from Seasonal Employment in Austria,"
IZA Discussion Papers
2242, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Emilia Del Bono & Andrea Weber, 2008. "Do Wages Compensate for Anticipated Working Time Restrictions? Evidence from Seasonal Employment in Austria," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26, pages 181-221.
- Andreas Kuhn & Oliver Ruf, 2009. "The Value of a Statistical Injury: New Evidence from the Swiss Labor Market," NRN working papers 2009-15, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
- Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2010.
"An Inquiry into the Theory, Causes and Consequences of Monitoring Indicators of Health and Safety at Work,"
IZA Discussion Papers
4734, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2010. "An Inquiry Into The Theory, Causes And Consequences Of Monitoring Indicators Of Health And Safety At Work," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-120, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
- Konstantinos, Pouliakas & Ioannis, Theodossiou, 2010. "An Inquiry Into the Theory, Causes and Consequences of Monitoring Indicators of Health and Safety At Work," MPRA Paper 20336, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Black, Dan A & Kniesner, Thomas J, 2003.
" On the Measurement of Job Risk in Hedonic Wage Models,"
Journal of Risk and Uncertainty,
Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 205-20, December.
- Dan A. Black & Thomas J. Kniesner, 2003. "On the Measurement of Job Risk in Hedonic Wage Models," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 49, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
- Dan A. Black & Thomas K. Kniesner, 2003. "On the Measurement of Job Risk in Hedonic Wage Models," NCEE Working Paper Series 200306, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Aug 2003.
- Wehn-Jyuan Tsai & Jin-Tan Liu & James Hammitt, 2011. "Aggregation Biases in Estimates of the Value per Statistical Life: Evidence from Longitudinal Matched Worker-Firm Data in Taiwan," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(3), pages 425-443, July.
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