Is Society Willing to Pay More for Children’s Safety

Most studies on the value of statistical life (VOSL) and values for prevention of injuries provide only the average values for the population. It is often argued that the values for children may be higher than that for adults because parents are usually more concerned about the mortality and morbidity risks of their children than for themselves. However, determining separate VOSLs for children and adults is not an easy task. Even if separate VOSLs for children and adults were available, applying them in economic evaluations of safety programmes and policies could get very complicated. Further, implicit values in decisions based on gains/losses in Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) or Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) may be different from the established VOSL. Using the results of a Value of Safety survey carried out in New Zealand in 1997-98, this paper investigates whether the society is willing to pay more for children’s safety and discusses the theoretical explanations on the disparities between VOSL for children and adults. Formal statistical tests and regression analysis were carried out to test for any differences between VOSLs for households with and without children. 26th Australasian Transport Research Forum Wellington New Zealand 1-3 October 2003 Is Society Willing to Pay More for Children’s Safety Jagadish Guria & Joanne Leung Page 2