- Title:
-
The Value of a Statistical Life for Regulatory Impact Statements
- Date:
- February 2007
- Organisations
- NZFS
- Authors:
- Kel Sanderson, Mark Goodchild, Dr Ganesh Nana, Adrian Slack
- Location:
- New Zealand, New Zealand
Overview
The New Zealand Fire Service Contestable Research Fund commissioned BERL to complete a programme of research with the objective of establishing a technically robust and defensible fire-related Value of a Statistical Life (VOSL) for use in Regulatory Impact Statements. The Value of a Statistical Life (VOSL) is a difficult concept but is basically a monetary value that is thought to express all the tangible and intangible values of a life lost or a life saved. It includes the usual monetary concepts of the present value of future income, and also the intangible enjoyment of life, or conversely pain and suffering of a life lost. It is not the value of any particular life, but the value of an additional ‘statistical life’ existing. The value being determined is the value of the marginal additional life.
