Are Some Lives More Valuable?
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Date
2003
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Abstract
A theoretical model of the ethical preferences of individuals is tested by conducting a
choice experiment on safety-enhancing road investments. The relative value of a
saved life is found to decrease with age, such that the present value of a saved year of
life is almost independent of age at a pure rate of time preference of a few percent,
and a saved car driver is valued 17-31% lower than a pedestrian of the same age.
Moreover, individuals’ ethical preferences seem to be fairly homogenous.
Description
Keywords
Ethics; social preferences; individual social welfare function; relative value of life; random ethical model