Benefits transfer and economic valuation of environmental damage in the European Union with special reference to health

Project Information

Grant agreement ID: ENV4960234

Project closed

Start date 1 June 1996

End date 31 August 1998

Funded under

• Specific programme of research and technological development in the field of environment and climate, 1994-1998

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

No data

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
United Kingdom

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Deliverables

Values for the benefits of avoided human ill-health that may be used in cost-benefit project assessment

Summary: The main result of this research has been to place values in the costs to individuals of suffering episodes of ill-health that might result from exposure to environmental pollutants. Following economic theory this cost measured as an individual's willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid an episode of ill-health. WTP was elicited through the use of a large scale contingent valuation (CV) survey carried out in five countries in the EU (namely the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK). Estimates for the benefits of avoiding ill-health episodes were hitherto unavailable for EU countries. Values from these surveys, therefore, can feed directly into cost-benefit appraisal of projects with human health impacts within each of the study countries. The values also represents the best current estimates for the transfer of benefits across policy contexts and across national boundaries within the EU. It is recommended that these values be used for benefits transfer, but that account is taken of the likely errors in that transfer (further details below). Also, exposure to pollution leads to increases in the risks of death in a population. One measure for valuing this risk that has received much attention in the literature is the value of a statistical life (VOSL). Meta-analysis, the 'analysis of analyses', has been used to calculate a 'best' estimate for the VOSL which summarizes the findings in the literature by controlling for the sample characteristics and estimation biases of the original studies. The research reveals that the best 'controlled' estimate of the VSOL is £3.8 million (in £1996). This figure represents a more reliable estimate of the; VOSL than that provided by any individual study.