This article estimates the mortality cost of smoking based on the first labor market estimates of the value of statistical life by smoking status. Using these values in conjunction with the increase in the mortality risk over the life cycle due to smoking, the value of statistical life by age...

Tradeoffs between monetary wealth and fatal safety risks are summarized in the value of a statistical life (VSL), a measure that is widely used for the evaluation of public policies in medicine, the environment, and transportation safety. This paper demonstrates the widespread use of this...

Across southern Africa, policy-makers are promoting home-based care for HIV/AIDS patients as a cheaper alternative to hospital care. However, cost studies have not sufficiently considered the costs and benefits to all stakeholders in home-based care.1 Drawing on existing literature, this study...

Although a positive association is found between HIV prevalence and intimate partner violence, a causal interpretation is hard to establish due to the endogeneity of HIV prevalence. Using the distance from the origin of the virus as an instrument, I find that an exogenous increase in HIV...

Economists think of medical innovation as a valuable but risky good, producing health benefits but increasing financial risk. This perspective overlooks how innovation can lower physical risks borne by healthy patients facing the prospect of future disease. We present an alternative framework...

Environmental conditions are likely to have an effect on people’s sense of life satisfaction, both directly and indirectly. In recent years there has been a burgeoning literature assessing the relationship between measures of environmental quality and subjective well-being. This type of...

While environmental economics studies using stated life satisfaction data have been gaining attention, much of this body of work remains exploratory. In this study we contribute to this emerging body of research by combining OECD survey data from four European countries on life satisfaction and...

The impacts of climate change are expected to create numerous challenges for cities. This report synthesizes key points raised in a series of discussions among “adaptation leaders” from fourteen cities around the world. Critical issues for urban adaptation that emerged from the discussions...

While the basic principles of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) are long-standing, the challenges entailed in applying these principles are constantly evolving. This paper reviews recent developments in environmental CBA since the publication of an OECD volume on this topic by Pearce et al. (2006)....

This paper provides estimates of the cost of preventing land-based plastic leakage into the ocean, covering 38 OECD member countries and 10 selected major plastic waste emitters in Asia and Africa. The study estimates capital costs at EUR 54 billion in the Moderate Ambition scenario and EUR 74...