The effect of new health information on individuals' expectations about their longevity is examined using a Bayesian learning model. Using two-period panel-structured survey data from Taiwan, we find that subjective probabilities of living to age 75 and 85 are significantly smaller for...

Over the past two decades, the growing awareness of the role that emissions play in human health and environmental degradation had led to a general movement in many parts of the world to control emissions to reduce the impacts. This movement has mainly taken two forms: 1) the development and...

Economic evaluation of projects involving changes in mortality risk conventionally assumes that lives are statistical, i.e., that risks and policy-induced changes in risk are small and similar among a population. In reality, baseline mortality risks and policy-induced changes in risk often...

The income elasticity of the value per statistical life (VSL) is an important parameter for policy analysis. Mortality risk reductions often dominate the quantified benefits of environmental and other policies, and estimates of their value are frequently transferred across countries with...

As traditionally conducted, benefit-cost analysis is rooted in neoclassical welfare economics, which, in its most simplified form, assumes that individuals act rationally and are primarily motivated by self-interest, making decisions that maximize their welfare. Its conduct is evolving to...

This study investigates the economic valuation of air-pollution-related health risks in China by applying the contingent valuation method. An individual interview survey is conducted to elicit resident's willingness-to-pay (WTP) for health risk reductions of asthma and mortality. Binary choice...

Two surveys conducted in Taiwan during the spring 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic reveal a high degree of concern about the threat posed by SARS to Taiwan and its residents, although respondents believe they are knowledgeable about the risk of SARS and that it is...