Valuing Health Risks from Air Pollution: A Review of the Literature and a Conceptual Model

This paper addresses a number of significant theoretical and empirical issues which remain unresolved in the existing literature. Existing literatures are yet sufficient to provide a fully adequate basis for a new valuation approach that takes into account the specific nature of mortality risks. The paper presents an integrated conceptual model that draws on our review of both the theoretical and empirical literature. The theoretical models developed in this study tried to provide measures of the value of reducing long-term risk for individual and family members. The presented model shows how parents establish the VSL for their children in their early years. This model suggests that parents’ altruism to their children and own wealth may well lead to a higher VSL than the discounted present value of the child's wealth argument suggests.