The Value of Statistical Life in Road Safety: A Meta-Analysis

Accident costs are an important component of the external costs of traffic, a substantial part of which is related to fatal accidents. The evaluation of fatal accident costs crucially depends on the availability of an estimate for the economic value of a statistical life. The aim of the current paper is to present an overview of such estimates contained in the empirical literature on the economic valuation of statistical life in road safety. The technique of meta-analysis is used to determine which variables are most appropriate to explain the variance of the value of statistical life (VOSL) estimates that have been reported in the literature. The analysis shows, among other things, that the magnitude of estimates of the VOSL depends on the research method, as there is a significant difference between stated and revealed preference studies. It also shows that VOSL estimates cannot simply be averaged over studies, as the magnitude of a VOSL estimate is directly related to the initial level of risk to be caught up in a fatal traffic accident as well as the risk decline implied by the research set-up. <BR><BR>