Bowland, Brad J.; Beghin, John C.

Journal of Policy Modeling Vol. 23 no. 4 (May 2001): 385-396.

Environmental economists use the value-of-statistical-life (VSL) approach to value mortality changes resulting from environmental improvement. Because of scarce data, VSL estimates are unavailable for most developing countries. Using robust regression techniques, we conduct a meta-analysis of VSL studies in industrialized countries to derive a VSL prediction function for developing economies accounting for differences in risk, income, human capital levels, and other demographic characteristics of these economies. We apply our estimated VSL to assess the willingness to pay for reduction in mortality linked to air pollution in Santiago, Chile. We find willingness-to-pay estimates in the range of 1992 purchasing power parity (PPP) $519,000-675,000 per life.

JEL Classification: I12, Q25, O15

Keywords: air pollution, meta-analysis, mortality, santiago, VSL, willingness to pay