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 the avoidance of IQ losses in children

A large scale multi-country stated preference approach

Exposure to chemicals has been shown to reduce IQ in children. In turn, a person’s IQ is likely to affect their educational achievements, which may then affect lifetime earnings, more generally, a person’s quality of life. At the same time, authorities face challenges in regulating chemical substances through actions such as bans and prohibitions, because of the difficulty in explicitly considering the economic benefits and costs of such regulations. Moreover, economic studies that show the value of reducing IQ loss caused by chemical exposure are not yet available.

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 details a stated preference survey estimating WTP to avoid IQ loss, filling an important gap in the valuation literature and addressing a need for applied benefits analysis for chemicals regulation. The SWACHE IQ loss survey was fielded in 11 countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Korea, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

English

Keywords: monetised benefits, economic valuation, morbidity valuation, surveys, IQ, chemicals regulation, health risk, non-market valuation, stated preferences, willingness-to-pay, health valuation, value of a statistical case
JEL: D61: Microeconomics / Welfare Economics / Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis; J17: Labor and Demographic Economics / Demographic Economics / Value of Life; Forgone Income; K32: Law and Economics / Other Substantive Areas of Law / Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law; Q53: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling; 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