Pricing Lives: Guideposts for a Safer Society

We must place a monetary value on life because it is frequently undervalued by society. The book Pricing Lives by W. Kip Viscusi argues that the value of a statistical life, or VSL, can create a safer and more equitable society by providing a risk-reward trade-off for people considering risky job choices. VSL is estimated to be $10 million, and the book provides a comprehensive look at economic and policy efforts to price lives.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2020
Publisher: Princeton University Press

The undervaluation of life in society poses a significant risk to all individuals. In the past, government agencies used a financial cost of death approach to monetize mortality risks, which significantly underestimated the value of life. This approach led to policies that undervalued the lives of individuals.
Pricing Lives, a book by W. Kip Viscusi, tells the story of how the government adopted a different approach called the value of a statistical life (VSL). VSL is a risk-reward trade-off that individuals make about their health when considering risky job choices. By using VSL, Viscusi calculated that the benefits of requiring businesses to label hazardous chemicals outweighed the costs, resulting in a significant increase in calculated benefits. His current estimate of the value of a statistical life is $10 million.
In this book, Viscusi provides a comprehensive examination of economic and policy efforts to price lives, including controversial topics such as whether older people's lives are worth less and richer people's lives are worth more. He explains why corporations need to abandon the misguided cost-of-death approach and how the courts can profit from increased application of VSL in assessing liability and setting damages. Viscusi also highlights how other countries consistently undervalue risks to life.
Pricing Lives proposes sensible economic guideposts to foster more protective policies and greater levels of safety in the United States and throughout the world. By valuing life more accurately, society can create a safer and more equitable environment for all individuals.

Weight: 476g
Dimension: 157 x 233 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691208596