El valor estadístico de la vida en España

The valuation of the risk of life is a key element in the cost-benefit analysis in the majority of the public policies directed to reduce the mortality risk. Although the estimation of the costs is, in fact, non-problematic, the quantification and monetisation of benefits is highly complex due to the non-availability of a monetary value of a reduction in the risk of death. Using the hedonic wage models, this paper makes an estimation of the ‘statistical value of life’ upon the base of the Spanish labour market through the construction of indexes of risk that simultaneously incorporate the occupation and the activity branch for the 1995-1999 period.