scholarly journals Randomized Safety Inspections and Risk Exposure on the Job: Quasi-experimental Estimates of the Value of a Statistical Life

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Lee ◽  
Laura O. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Risk Exposure ◽  
Omitted Variables ◽  
Federal Policies ◽  
Statistical Life ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Compensating Wages ◽  
Plant Level ◽  
Hedonic Wage ◽  
Safety Inspections

The value of a statistical life (VSL) is a critical driver of estimated benefits for federal policies designed to improve human health, safety, and environmental exposures. The vast majority of empirical evidence on the magnitude of the VSL arises from hedonic wage models that have been plagued by measurement error and omitted variables. To address these limitations, this paper employs randomly assigned workplace safety inspections to instrument for plant-level risks in a quasi-experimental design. We provide credible causal evidence for the existence of compensating wages for fatality risks and estimate a VSL between $(2016)8 million and $(2016)10 million. (JEL J17, J28, J31, K32)

Environmental Regulations and the Clean-Up of Manufacturing: Plant-Level Evidence

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Nouri Najjar ◽  
Jevan Cherniwchan
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Equilibrium Model ◽  
Emission Intensity ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Manufacturing Plant ◽  
Entry And Exit ◽  
Air Quality Standards ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Plant Level

For much of the industrialized world, pollution from manufacturing has been falling despite increased output. We examine how air quality standards—a common environmental regulation—have contributed to this "clean-up" of manufacturing. We develop a general equilibrium model to show how air quality standards can lead to a clean-up by causing: (i) reductions in plant emission intensity, (ii) relative changes in plant output, and (iii) plant entry and exit. We provide quasi-experimental evidence from Canada to highlight the magnitude of these responses. Our results suggest that air quality standards explain just under 40% of the clean-up of manufacturing.

scholarly journals Identifying the Effects of Bank Failures from a Natural Experiment in Mississippi during the Great Depression

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas L Ziebarth
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Bank Failures ◽  
Liquidity Provision ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Plant Level ◽  
Physical Output ◽  
Large Decline

I examine the causal effect of bank failures during the Great Depression using the quasi-experimental setup of Richardson and Troost (2009). The experiment is based on Mississippi being divided into two Federal Reserve districts, which followed different policies for liquidity provision. This translated into variation in bank failures across the state. Employing a plant-level sample from the Census of Manufactures, I find that banking failures had a negative effect on revenue stemming from a fall in physical output. I find no effect on employment at the plant-level and a large decline at the county-level. (JEL E32, E44, G21, G33, N12, N22, N92)

Meta-analysis of Value of Statistical Life Estimates

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agamoni Majumder ◽  
S. Madheswaran
Keyword(s):  
Wage Differential ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Value Of Statistical Life ◽  
Mortality Risks ◽  
Statistical Life ◽  
Compensating Wage Differential ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Hedonic Wage

Value of Statistical Life (VSL) is one of the most debatable areas in economics. However, VSL is frequently used as a policy instrument for evaluating various safety, health and environmental regulations. Policymakers have to undertake the difficult task of assigning monetary value to the reduction of various health and mortality risks while analyzing safety policies. Compensating wage differential (CWD) for job risks acts as a reference point for valuing mortality risks while VSL serves as a basis to analyze these benefits of risk reduction policies. However, it has been observed in the recent past that VSL estimates vary substantially across various studies. Therefore, it has become necessary for researchers and policymakers to understand the source of this variation in order to aid policymaking. This paper attempts to bring together some of the emerging issues in VSL literature and presents a meta-analysis that is based on 34 observations from 30 hedonic wage-based VSL studies. The results of this meta-analysis show that certain emerging areas in VSL literature such as worker’s compensation benefits, age and long-term health-related job risk require more emphasis and further examination.

scholarly journals 0424 The Injury Prevention Effects of Regulatory Workplace Safety Inspections in British Columbia, Canada from 2001 to 2011

2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. A54.3-A54
Author(s):  
Kim McLeod ◽  
Chris McLeod ◽  
Mieke Koehoorn ◽  
Hugh Davies ◽  
Benjamin Amick
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Injury Prevention ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Safety Inspections

scholarly journals Effect of Income Heterogeneity on Valuation of Mortality Risk in Taiwan: An Application of Unconditional Quantile Regression Method

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Je-Liang Liou
Keyword(s):  
Quantile Regression ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Statistical Life ◽  
Unconditional Quantile Regression ◽  
Quantile Regression Analysis ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Hedonic Wage ◽  
Quantile Regression Method

According to theory and existing empirical results, heterogeneity in personal characteristics, with income variation being one of them, affects the marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing fatal risk. In this study, the effect of income heterogeneity on the value of statistical life (VSL) in Taiwan through unconditional quantile regression analysis using the data collected by the “Manpower Utilization Survey” is investigated. The results of this empirical study show that the hedonic wage function that was constructed using empirical data from Taiwan was in line with the general form of non-linear function rather than the semi-log function that has been often used in previous studies, which should have great impact on the estimation of the VSL. The empirical results also show that the estimated VSL of Taiwanese labor varied with the difference in wages, which needs to be taken into account when discussing the public policies using VSL.

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