IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/max/cprwps/117.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Value of Statistical Life: Pursuing the Deadliest Catch

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Observed tradeoffs between monetary returns and fatality risk identify estimates of the value of a statistical life (VSL), inform public policy and quantity preferences for environmental quality, health and safety. To date, few investigations have estimated the VSL associated with tradeoffs between returns from natural resource extraction activities and the fatality risks they involve. Furthermore researchers have been unable to determine whether or not one's VSL is stable across multiple decision environments using revealed preference methods. Understanding these tradeoffs (and the VSL that they imply) may be used to inform resource management policy and safety regulations, as well as our general understanding of the value of life. By modeling a commercial fishing captain's choice to fish or not, conditional on the observed risk, this research investigates these toics using data from the Alaskan red king crab and snow crab fisheries. Using weather conditions and policy variables as instruments, our estimates of the mean VSL range from $4.00 to $4.67M (depending on the modeling assumption and fishery analyzed) and are robust to the incorporation of heterogeneous preferences. Furthermore, given the unique nature of the data we are able to conduct an intra-vessel comparison of the VSL and conclude that for roughly 92% of the fishermen observed in the data seet their VSL estimates are stable across both fisheries.

Suggested Citation

  • Kurt E. Schnier & William C. Horrace & Ronald G. Felthoven, 2009. "The Value of Statistical Life: Pursuing the Deadliest Catch," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 117, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    • Handle: RePEc:max:cprwps:117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/49/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas J. Kniesner & W. Kip Viscusi, 2023. "Compensating Differentials for Occupational Health and Safety Risks: Implications of Recent Evidence," Research in Labor Economics, in: 50th Celebratory Volume, volume 50, pages 83-116, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Akbar Marvasti & Sami Dakhlia, 2017. "Occupational Safety and the Shift from Common to Individual Fishing Quotas in the Gulf of Mexico," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(3), pages 705-720, January.
    3. Laura Armey & Thomas J. Kniesner & John D. Leeth & Ryan Sullivan, 2022. "Combat, casualties, and compensation: Evidence from Iraq and Afghanistan," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 66-82, January.
    4. Sami Dakhlia & Akbar Marvasti, 2020. "Regulatory Change, Market Structure, and Fatalities: The Case of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 57(1), pages 1-26, August.
    5. Kurt E. Schnier & Ronald G. Felthoven, 2013. "Production Efficiency and Exit in Rights-Based Fisheries," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(3), pages 538-557.
    6. Akbar Marvasti, 2020. "Value Of Life And Injury: Evidence From A U.S. Fishery," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(4), pages 711-722, October.
    7. James O’Brien, 2018. "Age, autos, and the value of a statistical life," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 51-79, August.
    8. Chris Rohlfs & Ryan Sullivan & Thomas Kniesner, 2015. "New Estimates of the Value of a Statistical Life Using Air Bag Regulations as a Quasi-experiment," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 331-359, February.
    9. Goucher, Jeremy & Horrace, William C., 2012. "The value of life: Real risks and safety-related productivity in the Himalaya," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 27-32.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    value of statistical life (VSL); intra-agent VSL comparison; Alaskan crab fisheries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • Q22 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Fishery

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:max:cprwps:117. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Margaret Austin or Zia Jackson or Katrina Fiacchi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cpsyrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.