Willingness to pay and QALYs: What can we learn about valuing foodborne risk?

This study examines the value of reducing foodborne risk. Research on the valuation of health risk has been dominated by the study of mortality risk. Foodborne risk is, however, in most cases non-fatal and this study therefore focuses on individuals' preferences for reducing morbidity risk related to food consumption. We obtain estimates of the value of a statistical case (VSC) for morbidity risk and the value of a statistical life (VSL) for mortality risk in line with previous findings in the literature. However, we also examine whether WTP is proportional to the expected change in QALYs and estimate a WTP per QALY. We find that WTP is increasing with but not proportional to the change in QALYs. Our monetary estimates are significantly higher than expected and suggest that respondents may have found it dificult to evaluate both a change in risk and health level.