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THE MORTALITY COST OF EXPENDITURES
Author(s) -
Broughel James,
Viscusi W. Kip
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1111/coep.12483
Subject(s) - economics , activity based costing , cutoff , actuarial science , accounting , quantum mechanics , physics
This paper updates the mortality cost of expenditures, which has relevance to a broad range of policies, including regulations, wars, and COVID‐19 restrictions. Because changes in income lead to changes in mortality risk, health investments costing more per life saved than a threshold cost‐per‐life‐saved cutoff level are expected to increase mortality risk. This article discusses the mechanisms driving this relationship and provides recent empirical support. The 2019 cost‐per‐life‐saved cutoff level at which expenditures increase mortality risk has a lower bound of $83.1 million and an upper bound of $133.8 million, with a midpoint of $108.5 million. ( JEL D61, I18, J17, K32)