Valuing Morbidity in Environmental Benefit-Cost Analysis

Abstract

For benefit-cost analysis of policies with respect to environmental and natural resources, economic researchers often require monetized values of households’ willingness to pay for reductions in risks to human life and health. I briefly recap some of the main issues in the related task of valuing reductions in the risk of death. These issues also account for our considerably smaller literature on valuing reductions in morbidity risks. An important distinction is the issue of valuation in the space of illnesses versus valuation in the space of illness attributes. I compare the requirements for environmental benefit-cost analysis with the limitations of the standard approaches taken in cost-effectiveness analysis in health economics, and I highlight some areas that are ripe for further research.