Quaderni IRCrES-CNR, (2019) vol. 4, n. 2 cap. 2

La VoSL, “Value of Statistical Life”:  Il caso italiano relativo al rischio sismico

VOSL, “Value of Statistical Life”: Evidences from Italian survey on seismic risk.

Andrea Rampa (a), Nicolò Barbieri (b), Massimiliano Mazzanti (b) e Anna Montini(b)

(a) CNR-IRCRES, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Ricerca sulla Crescita Economica Sostenibile, Milano; Centro di Ricerca SEEDS Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies (Ferrara) – I

(b) Università di Ferrara; Centro di Ricerca SEEDS Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies (Ferrara) – I

corresponding author: andrea.rampa@ircres.cnr.it

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to provide an economic evaluation of statistical life in the context of seismic risk; in so doing, we investigate the effects of age, income, education and risk perception on the propensity to pay for an increasing in earthquake safety.
We built a theoretical model in line with the literature on mortality risk and value of statistical life (VoSL): Thus, defining VoSL as the willingness to pay (WTP) for a change in a specific risk, in the paper seismic risk. In so doing, we administer a survey of the Italian population and use it to we estimante a WTP and then a VOSL. To do so, we use a contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate people’s WTP.
Our main conclusions provide a social perspective on the damage caused by earthquakes and partially contradict the idea of humans misleading in perceive a danger.

Keywords: Value of statistical life, safety, risk analysis, natural disaster.

How to cite this article

Rampa, A., Barbieri, N., Mazzanti, M., & Montini, A. (2019). La Vosl, “value of statistical life”: il caso italiano relativo al rischio sismico. Quaderni IRCrES, 4(2), 19-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.23760/2499-6661.2019.008