1887

OECD Environment Working Papers

This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies on environmental issues prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal authors are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language English or French with a summary in the other if available.

English

Valuing a reduction in the risk and severity of asthma

A large scale multi-country stated preference approach

Asthma is a non-communicable and non-curable lung disease that is associated with an array of environmental contaminants and chemicals. Many of these hazards are subject to regulation, or may be considered for regulation, in order to reduce exposures and prevent human health risks. However, the available information on willingness-to-pay (WTP) to avoid asthma or reduce its severity is scarce, incomplete and does not provide estimates compatible with welfare economic theory that can be used in cost-benefit analysis.

This paper is part of the series of large scale willingness to pay (WTP) studies resulting from the Surveys to elicit Willingness to pay to Avoid Chemicals related negative Health Effects (SWACHE) project that intends to improve the basis for doing cost-benefit analyses of chemicals management options and environmental policies in general. The present paper offers values suitable for use in cost-benefit analyses of the WTP for reduced severity of asthma attacks in adults and children and in reduced probability of getting asthma for these two population groups, all in the context of reducing chemical exposures, and covering populations in seven OECD countries: Canada, Czech Republic, France, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The context for such WTP elicitations was a set of household products that contain fewer hazardous chemicals than what is currently available in supermarkets but are more expensive.

English

Keywords: surveys, stated preferences, chemicals regulation, non-market valuation, health valuation, monetised benefits, value of a statistical case, willingness-to-pay, economic valuation, health risk, morbidity valuation, asthma
JEL: Q53: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling; D61: Microeconomics / Welfare Economics / Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis; K32: Law and Economics / Other Substantive Areas of Law / Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law; J17: Labor and Demographic Economics / Demographic Economics / Value of Life; Forgone Income; Q58: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Environmental Economics: Government Policy; I18: Health, Education, and Welfare / Health / Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health; Q51: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Valuation of Environmental Effects
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error