Valuing Indirect Effects From Environmental Hazards On A Child’s Life Chances

This paper discusses indirect child welfare effects associated with environmental health. It considers the economic value of reducing the indirect risk to a child’s life chances from environmental threats to (a) caregiver health, (b) sibling health or the child’s health, and (c) the health of the surrounding natural environment and the consequent caregiver’s choices. Each of these effects can reduce the healthy child’s chance to be productive, to complement the work of others, and to contribute to the common good. In addition, this paper considers what evidence exists in the current literature that might quantify these effects, and whether these effects may be important to policy makers both for child health-related regulations and for regulations involving adult health effects. Finally, this paper also considers whether these indirect effects can be linked to existing models to value children’s health effects.