TY - JOUR PY - 2005// TI - The value of a statistical life and the coefficient of relative risk aversion JO - Journal of risk and uncertainty A1 - Kaplow, Louis SP - 23 EP - 34 VL - 31 IS - 1 N2 - Individuals' risk preferences are estimated and employed in a variety of settings, notably including choices in financial, labor, and product markets. Recent work, especially in financial economics, provides estimates of individuals' coefficients of relative risk aversion ( R's ) in excess of one, and often significantly higher. However, it can be shown that high R's imply equally high values for the income elasticity of the value of a statistical life. Yet estimates of this elasticity, derived from labor and product markets, are in the range of 0.5 to 0.6. Furthermore, it turns out that even an R below one is difficult to reconcile with these elasticity estimates. Thus, there appears to be an important (additional) anomaly involving individuals' risk-taking behavior in different market settings.

LA - SN - 0895-5646 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11166-005-2928-1 ID - ref1 ER -