COST OF LIVING
”Your money or your life.” The choice traditionally presented by the highwayman is supposed to have only one sensible answer. Money is, after all, no use to a corpse. Yet economists often study something rather like the highwayman's offer in an attempt to uncover the answer to an important question: how much is your life actually worth?
Like many awkward questions, this is one that has to be answered. Safety regulations save lives but also raise the cost of doing business, a cost we all pay through higher prices. Are they worth it? Our taxes pay for life-saving spending on road safety and fire fighting. Are they high enough, or too high?
So how much are we willing to spend to save a life? A traditional planner's approach used to be to measure the value of wages lost due to death or injury. That's dreadful: it confuses what I think my life is worth with what my boss thinks my life is worth.
So an alternative is to ask people how much they would pay for a safer car or kitchen cleaner. But such surveys do not always produce sensible results. Our answers depend on whether we're being offered a safer ?10 household cleaner and then asked if we want the more dangerous ?5 version, or whether we're offered the ?5 brand and then asked if we'll pay ?10 for the safer product. People often answer ”no” to both questions, contradicting themselves. These inconsistencies mean that we're either irrational or lying to pollsters, and perhaps both.
Economists therefore tend to prefer observing real choices. If you're willing to cross a busy street to pick up a ?20 note, the economist who put it there can infer something about your willingness to accept risk. More orthodox approaches look at career choices: if you're willing to be a lumberjack, part of that decision is to accept risk in exchange for financial reward.
Being a soldier is risky; so is being a drug-dealer or prostitute. The difficulty, evidently, is to disentangle the health risk and the financial reward from all the other motivations to choose a particular way of life. That isn't easy but economists try.
World Bank economist Paul Gertler and his colleagues reckoned that Mexican prostitutes valued their lives at about $50,000 per year, based on willingness to take money not to use condoms. At five times their annual earnings, that's a similar figure to workers accepting risky jobs in rich countries.
There are anomalies. Steve Freakonomics Levitt and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh calculated that Chicago drug dealers seemed to value their entire lives at $50,000 to $100,000 - low indeed, even for poor young men whose career choice indicates a taste for risks.
Whatever the frailties of these calculations, they are the best we have. And far from cheapening life, this sort of research often highlights just how valuable our safer, healthier modern lives really are. Kevin Murphy of the Chicago Graduate School of Business recently visited London to present his research on the value of health improvements in the US since 1970. They're vast - about $10 trillion in today's money. Looking further back, if you had to choose between the material progress of the 20th century and the improvements in health, it would be a toss-up. The health gains are as valuable as everything else put together. Encouragingly, health in most developing countries has improved faster than in rich ones, suggesting that global inequality is falling.
And a more personal piece of good news: Murphy reckons the delicious cheeseburger I ate before interviewing him only cost me ?1 worth of health. Talk about a good deal.
上一篇: 美文欣赏:幸福人生
情商高的人都有哪些特点?
国际英语资讯:Dozens wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers in West Bank, Gaza
像当地人一样吃饭:盘点10个国家的餐厅礼仪
国内英语资讯:Chinese leaders extend Spring Festival greetings to former leaders
国际英语资讯:U.S. President Trump, DPRK leader Kim meet in Panmunjom, pledge to restart talks
国际英语资讯:Presidential elections begin in El Salvador
国际英语资讯:Russia to suspend INF Treaty after U.S. pulls out
国内英语资讯:Chinese premier congratulates on 65th anniversary of Icebreaking Mission in China-Britain tr
国内英语资讯:Feature: Chinas ambassador delivers Spring Festival wishes to Iraqi visa applicants in Bag
国内英语资讯:China Focus: Xi visits cadres, residents in Beijing ahead of Spring Festival
国内英语资讯:China pushing for strict, law-based implementation of special pardons
国际英语资讯:President Widodo officially declared winner of Indonesias poll
体坛英语资讯:Palacios buoyed by Real Madrid transfer talk
国内英语资讯:Xis special envoy to attend 7th World Government Summit
国内英语资讯:Chinese study on quantum communication wins Newcomb Cleveland Prize
国际英语资讯:India proposes meeting with Pakistan on Kartarpur corridor
国内英语资讯:Rail travel demand remains robust on Lunar New Years eve
Zara换了个logo!网友对此并不感冒
国内英语资讯:Commentary: China, U.S. should jointly expand consensus, narrow differences
国内英语资讯:Chinese premier calls for all-round cooperation with Qatar
国际英语资讯:UN chief welcomes announcement to resume DPRK-U.S. working-level dialogue
国际英语资讯:Yemeni warring factions meet over Hodeidah withdrawal for 2nd day
体坛英语资讯:Analysis: Why Bayern is going beyond its borders for Hudson-Odoi
2019年12生肖运势预测:猪年会不会走好运呢?
国内英语资讯:Xinhua Headlines: Xi extends Spring Festival greetings, expressing confidence for future
国际英语资讯:Thailands top retailer to invest in ride-hailing app
国内英语资讯:Legislatures role in enforcing water pollution control law stressed
每逢佳节胖五斤?寒假长胖,开学要跑步!
吃早饭好,还是不吃早饭好
国内英语资讯:China appreciates European countries efforts to maintain Iran nuclear agreement