Economists and values
Another great comic from SMBC:
To (as usual) kill the fun a bit, I would note that the Economist is explicitly placing value on life in order to understand trade-offs. The “normal person” is still placing an implicit value on life when they discuss the policy – they just don’t want to say it. This implies that the “normal person” is hiding the trade-off, making any policy recommendation they make less transparent.
Oh come on. The error bars are wider than that! Just look at the differences in VSL measures arising from employment and housing studies! I’d be surprised if the 95% CI were narrower than $1 million.
@Eric Crampton
Agreed. We had the same conversation about the size of the error bands at work 😛
Hehe! This is really pun-ny! Love this kinda humor. Keep posting. The error bar could be as wide as Bill Gates’ worth, or all the property on the Earth 😛
If you’re interested ediwm discussed the same cartoon and linked to a study with the value of a human life http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2002/10/09/5646/
The value of an average life in the US is 1.54 million. Its based on how much people increase their speed of driving compared to time saved due to speeding, average wage and the increase in risk of losing one’s life.
@steve
Surely that only provides an upper limit on the value of a life, as an individual is likely to be subject to the endowment effect with their own lives 😉
We need to ask a person BEFORE they are alive how much they would be willing to trade to not live 😛
$1.54 m is way too low. Viscusi’s estimates are around $7 million, which is also then about the figure used in government cost-benefit analyses.
Go check on SSRN. The Ashenfelter number is way on the low side.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=379270
Oh: and Cowen agrees with me on which team ought win the soccer thing.
like this one… just like my teacher always said :
“when everyone said something same. just see their background, and you will know what they actually want to says.”
nice
Yep, I’m definitely a “normal person” and I’m guilty of sometimes hiding the trade-offs. Now that you mention it, that does make my agenda and my recommendations less transparent.
Hmmm, something else to think about.
Amusing comic. It may make the economist look cold, but he is just being a realist as his profession trained him to be.
Great webcomic 🙂
Nice cartoon and funny…
Hahahahhah good post
Thank you for the funny posted
Elcid