Estimating value of statistical life (VSL) is an important input to many benefit-cost analysis (BCA) approaches, but for many low- and middle-income countries, there are limited or no data estimating VSL. Current guidance relies on extrapolation of results from high-income settings, which may be unreliable, leading to low confidence applying VSL. During 2019, we surveyed 1,820 low-income individuals (average consumption per capita USD329) across four diverse regions in Ghana and Kenya, to inform recommendations about effective spending in the development sector. We elicited VSL using a stated-preference approach, capturing the willingness-to-pay to reduce the risk of death for themselves and their children. Additionally, we conducted multiple “policy choice experiments” (PCEs) in which we asked respondents to choose, from the perspective of a decision-maker, between programs that save lives of different ages, and save lives and provide cash transfers. VSL estimates for this population fell in the range of USD66,795–USD90,453 (PPP-adjusted). We found similar results in the PCE but uncovered much stronger preferences for saving younger lives. Overall, our results suggest that VSL in low-income countries may be higher than estimates based on extrapolations from wealthy countries and that within these communities, policymakers should place more weight on saving the lives of young children. We also explore methodological learnings about how to apply and collect data for BCA in particularly low-income, low-education settings. We find that through careful training and gatekeeping, it is feasible to elicit complicated preferences in this population, and both approaches have their benefits and drawbacks.

Asthma is a non-communicable and non-curable lung disease that affects 10% of children and 4% of adults worldwide and is associated with an array of environmental contaminants and chemicals. This article offers values suitable for use in cost–benefit analyses of the willingness to pay (WTP) for reduced severity of asthma in adults and children and in reduced probability of getting asthma for these two population groups, all in the context of reducing chemical exposures. To this end, an online survey was administered between November 2021 and May 2022 to 12 727 respondents from seven countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This article applies two stated preference methods for eliciting WTP: the contingent valuation method for reduced asthma severity and choice experiments for reduced probability of getting asthma of various severities. The context for such elicitations was a set of household products that contain fewer hazardous chemicals than what is currently available in supermarkets but are more expensive. The study finds that the WTP for reducing asthma severity in adults by one step, e.g. from “moderate plus” to “moderate”, is USD2022 529 per year on average. The parental WTP for reducing asthma severity in their children is USD2022 PPP 948 per year and is on average 1.8 times higher than their WTP for themselves. The mean value of a statistical case (VSC) of adult asthma which would be applied to predictions of new cases of asthma avoided by a regulation equals USD2022 280 000, while the mean VSC of childhood asthma equals USD2022 430 000.

Green rooftops, also known as vegetated roofs, will play a critical role in enhancing the resilience of urban areas in the face of climate change and other contemporary environmental and social challenges. To ensure the optimal design and implementation of these green technologies, it is vital to understand the public’s preferences, values, and attitudes toward the government support for green rooftops. This study employs contingent valuation methods, specifically utilizing a payment card and a choice experiment, to investigate these topics that have received inadequate exploration within the current body of literature. Our findings indicate that 45% of the public is aware of green rooftops, and the most desired features on an extensive green rooftop, ranked by importance, are: flowers, grass, trees, and walking paths. The majority (79%) of the public supports a federally proposed legislation currently under review (the Public School Green Rooftop Program) and has a mean willingness to pay of approximately $176 per household as a one-time payment. Additionally, the results show that individuals place a higher value on green rooftops that incorporate solar energy technology compared to those without. Furthermore, there is a perceived, loss of value when access to a green rooftop is limited, as opposed to having open access.

Regulatory impact analyses of proposed environmental, occupational, and consumer product safety regulations often rely on a metric known as the Value per Statistical Case of Cancer (VSCC), that is, the public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for reductions in the risk of developing cancer. In this paper, we ask whether the VSCC depends on cancer survival prospects. We develop a simple theoretical model that shows that under standard assumptions the VSCC is decreasing in the chance of surviving cancer. We empirically test this prediction by means of a stated preference survey, where we ask subjects aged 45–60 from the general population in the Czech Republic to report information about their WTP for reductions in the risk of getting cancer. One half of the sample was told that, if they got cancer, the 5-year survival rate was 60 % (corresponding to the average survival chances across all types of cancer), while the other half was told that it was 75 %. Consistent with the theoretical model, we find that the VSCC is larger in the former group. The ratio between the VSCC of the two groups is approximately equal to the ratio between the conditional cancer mortality risks implied by the survey’s survival rates, suggesting that the VSCC is proportional to conditional cancer mortality. Our findings have important policy implications in the context of regulations that focus on pollutants linked to cancers with different chances of survival.

Along with data about actual, desired, and anticipated job characteristics, this paper uses a novel data element, the subjective conditional probability of working at age 70, to estimate the causal effects of job characteristics on retirement in the United States. Having flexible work hours is the most consistent predictor of retirement preferences and expectations: if all current workers had flexible hours, the fraction working at age 70 would be 0.322, but it would be just 0.172 if none had this option. Job stress, physical, and cognitive job demands, the option to telecommute, and commuting times were additional predictors of retirement expectations.

Ex ante analyses of agricultural practices often examine stated preference data, yet response behavior as a potential source of bias is often disregarded. We use survey data to estimate producers’ willingness to rent public land for rotational grazing in Wisconsin and combine it with information on nonrespondents to control for nonresponse and avidity effects. Previous experience with managed grazing and rental decisions influenced who responded as well as their rental intentions. These effects do not produce discernable bias but still encourage attention to this possibility in other ex ante contexts. Land rental determinants and willingness-to-pay estimates are also related to grazing initiatives.

A growing body of literature demonstrates that many behavioral anomalies observed in stated-preference elicitation methods such as the contingent valuation method are also observed in actual choices and vice versa. This presentation furthers the argument that such parallel behaviors should be viewed as a strength of stated-preference methods. Three well-known anomalies observed in both stated preferences and actual choices are first reviewed to lay the foundation for this argument. A number of lesser-known anomalies are then presented to demonstrate the wider prevalence of parallel anomalies in stated preferences and actual choices.

This paper examines the opinions of Spanish older people regarding the ideal living situation in later life – living in their own home, co-residing in a relative's home or institutionalisation – differentiating between two hypothetical situations: healthy ageing and frailty. Data are drawn from the Instituto de Mayores y Servicios Sociales (Institute of Older People and Social Services; IMSERSO) survey Encuesta de Mayores 2010 (Older People Survey 2010), comprising 2,535 individuals aged 65 and over living in private dwellings. The results confirm that residential preferences vary depending on expected health conditions. Remaining in one's own home is preferred when older people foresee a healthy old age, whilst co-residence at a relative's home turns into the favoured solution if older people have to face some physical or cognitive limitation. The particularities of the Spanish context regarding family-oriented values about care responsibilities and the structural deficiency in the provision of formal support, in addition to other socio-demographic, psychological and attitudinal aspects, were explanatory factors of the lower desirability for ageing at home in the case of frailty. The findings question the uniform image of ‘ageing in place’ as a preference, inviting reflections on the need to distinguish between later-life stages and national contexts.

In order to assess people's preferences regarding potential reforms of the Irish state pension system, we surveyed a sample of the Irish adult population about their opinion on a selection of measures and issues related to the redistributive principles and parameters of the pension scheme. Even though very few people are well informed about the pension system, we observe a kind of homogeneity regarding perceptions about the way public pension benefits should be provided. As far as we know, this article represents the first attempt to elicit people's preferences for reforming the state Irish pension system using stated preferences techniques.