Abstract
The appropriate approach to valuing risk reduction depends in large part on one’s intent. In the case of government regulatory efforts, the overall objective is typically to value changes in risk. These policies have a small incremental effect in reducing risk, and the typical policy question is how much society is willing to pay for this reduction. When risks are being imposed involuntarily, the objective is often to determine how much the person bearing the risk must be compensated. This measure consequently focuses on a willingness-to-accept amount, which for small changes in risk should reflect the same tradeoff rate as the willingness-to-pay amount.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Referenes
Allais, M. (1953), “Le comportement de l’Homme Rationnnel Devant le Risque:Critque des Postulats et Axioms de l’Ecole Americane,” Econometrica 21:503–546.
Ellsberg, D. (1961), “Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 75: 643–669.
Fischhoff, Baruch et al. (1981), Acceptable Risk (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Grether, D. (1980), “Bayes Rule as a Descriptive Model: The Representativeness Heuristic,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 95: 537–557.
Kahneman, Daniel and Amos Tversky (1979), “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk,” Econometrica 47: 263–291.
Krupnick, Alan J. and Maureen L. Cropper (1992), “The Effect of Information on Health Risk Valuations,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 5(1): 29–48.
Lichtenstein, S. et al. (1978), “Judged Frequency of Lethal Events,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 4: 551–578.
Magat, Wesley A., W. Kip Viscusi, and Joel Huber (1991), “The Death Risk Lottery Metric for Health Risks: Cancer and Nerve Disease,” Duke University Working Paper.
Svenson, O. (1979), “Are We All Among the Better Drivers?” Unpublished Manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm.
Tversky, Amos and Daniel Kahneman (1974), “Judgement under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases,” Science 185: 1124–1131.
Viscusi, W. Kip (1979), Employment Hazards: An Investigation of Market Performance, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.
Viscusi, W. Kip (1989), “Prospective Reference Theory: Toward an Explanation of the Paradoxes,” The Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 2(3): 235–264.
Viscusi, W. Kip (1992a), Fatal Tradeoffs: Public and Private Responsibilities for Risk, New York: Oxford University Press.
Viscusi, W. Kip (1992b), Smoking: Making the Risky Decision, New York: Oxford University Press.
Viscusi, W. Kip (1993), “The Value of Risks to Life and Health,” Journal of Economic Literature XXXI(4): 1912–1946.
Viscusi, W. Kip and William Evans (1990), “Utility Functions that Depend on Health Status: Estimates and Economic Implications,” American Economic Review 80(3): 353–374.
Viscusi, W. Kip and Wesley A. Magat (1987), Learning About Risk: Consumer and Worker Responses to Hazard Information, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Viscusi, W. Kip and Wesley A. Magat (1992), “Bayesian Decisions with Ambiguous Belief Aversion,” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 5(4): 371–387.
Viscusi, W. Kip, Wesley A. Magat, and Anne Forrest (1988), “Altruistic and Private Valuations of Risk Reduction,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 7(2): 227–245.
Viscusi, W. Kip, Wesley A. Magat, and Joel Huber (1987), “An Investigation of the Rationality of Consumer Valuations of Multiple Health Risks,” Rand Journal of Economics 18(4): 465–479.
Viscusi, W. Kip, Wesley A. Magat, and Joel Huber (1991), “Pricing Environmental Health Risks: Survey Assessments of Risk-Risk and Risk-Dollar Tradeoffs for Chronic Bronchitis,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 21(1): 32–51.
Viscusi, W. Kip, and Charles O’Connor (1984), “Adaptive Responses to Chemical Labeling: Are Workers Bayesian Decision Makers?” American Economic Review 74(5): 942–956.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Viscusi, W.K. (1997). Economic and Psychological Aspects of Valuing Risk Reduction. In: Kopp, R.J., Pommerehne, W.W., Schwarz, N. (eds) Determining the Value of Non-Marketed Goods. Studies in Risk and Uncertainty, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5364-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5364-5_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6255-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5364-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive