The value of changes in mortality risk is conventionally estimated by the marginal rate of substitution between income and mortality risk—the value per statistical life (VSL). Previous estimates of the income elasticity of VSL, obtained from meta-analysis of compensating-wagedifferential studies and from contingent valuation, are typically less than one, often 0.3 to 0.5. We present new estimat...

The objective of this work is to try to define and calculate the optimal growth path, in the presence of exogenous technical change, without resorting to the discounted-sum criterion. The solution suggested is to consider an optimality criterion expressing an Allais-anonymous intergenerational consensus. The partial characterization of consensual optimality was made possible thanks to the decom...

An optimization model is presented that examines the relationship between root architecture and multiple resource acquisition, specifically water and phosphorus in spatially heterogeneous environments. The basal root growth angle of an individual common bean plant, which determines the orientation and localization of the bulk of the root system, was modeled as the decision variable. The total p...

Many policies and regulations are intended to protect human life and health. To analyze the benefits and costs of these measures, we must address society’s willingness to pay (WTP) for a variety of health-risk reductions. By convention, economists report estimates of this WTP in terms of a unit called a “statistical life.”1 While some economists may not be particularly familiar with this termin...