Document ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0225-0304
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2008-03-19T04:00Z

"King, Heidi R." <Heidi_R._King@omb.eop.gov> 

03/07/2008 11:41 AM

	

To

Ron Evans/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA

cc

Janet Cakir/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA, <Stefan.Osborne@mail.doc.gov>, Tricia
Crabtree/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA, Lydia Wegman/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA, Bryan
Hubbell/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA

Subject

RE: FW: EPA's value of a statistical life

 

Stefan, Margo also suggested this link for you

6 U.S. EPA. 2000. Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses.

http://yosemite1.epa.gov/ee/epa/eed.nsf/webpages/Guidelines.html/$file/G

uidelines.pdf

Thanks EPA for quick thorough response !!

heidi

-----Original Message-----

From: Evans.Ron@epamail.epa.gov [mailto:Evans.Ron@epamail.epa.gov] 

Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 11:34 AM

To: King, Heidi R.

Cc: Cakir.Janet@epamail.epa.gov; Stefan.Osborne@mail.doc.gov;

Crabtree.Tricia@epamail.epa.gov; Wegman.Lydia@epamail.epa.gov;

Hubbell.Bryan@epamail.epa.gov

Subject: Re: FW: EPA's value of a statistical life

The Value of Statistical life in 1990, using 1999$ is $5.5M. The VSL for

1990, using 2006$ is $6.2M. We also project future-year VSL using income

growth adjustment factors.

It is common practice for different agencies to use different values for

VSL.  The simplest reason to consider is to think about the voluntary

versus involuntary nature of risks, i.e. you would expect people to

request a higher amount for an involuntary risk avoidance.

In addition,  here is an article which Bryan Hubbell published 2 years

ago which covers the derivation of VSL we use

An Empirical Bayes Approach to Combining and Comparing Estimates of the

Value of a Statistical Life for Environmental Policy Analysis

                                                                        

         Journal         Environmental and Resource Economics           

                                                                        

        Publisher        Springer Netherlands                           

                                                                        

          ISSN           0924-6460 (Print) 1573-1502 (Online)           

                                                                        

          Issue          Volume 34, Number 3 / July, 2006               

                                                                        

           DOI           10.1007/s10640-006-9000-8                      

                                                                        

          Pages          385-406                                        

                                                                        

   Subject Collection    Business and Economics                         

                                                                        

    SpringerLink Date    Friday, August 18, 2006                        

                                                                        

                                                                        

             "King, Heidi R."                                           

             <Heidi_R._King@o                                           

             mb.eop.gov>                                             To 

                                      Ron Evans/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA, Janet 

             03/07/2008 11:09         Cakir/RTP/USEPA/US@EPA,           

             AM                       <Stefan.Osborne@mail.doc.gov>     

                                                                     cc 

                                                                        

                                                                Subject 

                                      FW: EPA's value of a statistical  

                                      life                              

                                                                        

                                                                        

                                                                        

                                                                        

                                                                        

                                                                        

Ron and Janet,

Can you "reply all" to help us identify EPA's value for a statistical

life, and a source to understand more about it's derivation?

I appreciate it;

RIA comments forthcoming as early as possible; we're reading like mad

today :-)

h

From: Stefan.Osborne@mail.doc.gov [mailto:Stefan.Osborne@mail.doc.gov]

Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 9:38 AM

To: King, Heidi R.

Subject: EPA's value of a statistical life

Hello Heidi!

I noticed in the benefits section of the ozone naaqs ria that the value

of a statistical life for 1990 is $5.5 million, while various other

sources say the value of a statistical life is $5.5 million in 1999

dollars.  That confused me.  Also, Fumie Griego just sent me a memo from

FAA saying that they will use $5.5 million for 2007.  That confused me

even more.  Do you have a source close at hand where I can definitively

show that EPA's value of a statistical life for 2007 is much higher than

FAA's?

Thanks,

Stefan

Stefan Osborne

Office of Competition and Economic Analysis International Trade

Administration U.S. Department of Commerce

1401 Constitution Ave., NW

Room 2223

Washington, D.C. 20230

(T) 202.482.1607

(F) 202.482.4614