Lisa A. Robinson, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Olof Bystrom, OECD

Ståle Navrud, Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Mortality risk reductions typically dominate the benefits estimates for environmental policies. Recent reviews and syntheses of the value per statistical life (VSL) literature suggest that, while the research base is relatively strong for some settings, it contains significant gaps and inconsistencies. These include the need for more research on how attributes of the population and the risk affect these values. Deciding how to best synthesize and apply the estimates is also challenging.

The value of nonfatal risk reductions receives substantially less attention, although the expected reduction in cases of nonfatal illnesses or injuries associated with environmental policies is frequently large. As is the case for mortality risks, estimates of individual willingness to pay (WTP) are the preferred measure of values. However, due to gaps in the research literature, these risks are often valued using proxies such as averted costs.

Current approaches to valuation also raise a number of questions such as how to appropriately combine values for co-occurring effects and how to address distributional equity. Recent and emerging research addresses all of these problems, including new best practice WTP studies for mortality and morbidity, improved approaches for combining results across studies and transferring the estimates to different contexts, and innovations to address related challenges.

This special issue will highlight important contributions to this work and provide a useful reference for those interested in applying or building upon the results.

Potential topics

• Value per statistical life (VSL) and population attributes affecting mortality risk valuations
• Valuation of nonfatal risk reductions and morbidity using willingness to pay approaches
• Synthesis and application of health valuation estimates across different contexts
• Addressing co-occurring effects and distributional equity in health valuations
• Benefit transfer methods and meta-analysis approaches for health valuation
• Best practice willingness to pay studies for mortality and morbidity risk reductions
• Combining and transferring valuation estimates to different policy contexts
• Methodological innovations in environmental health economic evaluation

Timeline

• October 31, 2026: Submission deadline