The Value of Life in Europe – A Meta-Analysis

Deciding on the allocation of scarce societal resources to life-saving activities is a problem that a wide variety of regulations and government programs face. In particular, it is a problem arising in very similar ways for social and public policy across countries. A commonly used approach to empirically assess the life-saving benefits of regulations is the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL). The VSL essentially summarizes and expresses the monetary value of small reductions in mortality risks of the population. Such reductions could be brought about, for instance, by environmental regulations aiming at CO2 reduction or health care programs targeting preventive medical examinations. In this paper, we investigate the Value of a Statistical Life in Europe by collating estimates of the VSL across countries. Based on 94 observations from 37 studies, our meta-analysis finds that VSL estimates based on health risks are lower than those based on traffic and environmental risks. Moreover, VSL studies based on wage-risk studies find higher estimates than contingent valuation studies