What people and communities are ready to give up in order to have longer projected

lifespans is the subject of the economics of the value of life. The value of life is
determined by the private decisions that people, both implicitly and openly, make
towards their own health and safety. The value of life is also about the collective,
public decisions that societies make on tax and spending policies that have an impact
on predicted lifespans and regulations that create the framework for individual
decision-making. Public policy is proposed based on expert advice in order to
enhance the quality of human decisions and their outcomes. Public decisions are
informed by inferences drawn from individual choices. Estimates from risk-
compensating pay differences, risk-affected consumption, and fictitious markets
produce values of life that commonly fall between $1 million and $9 million.

At an early stage, economists considered the productive contribution by a person as

the value of life of that person. This productive value used to be a basis to value loss
of life. Like physical capital, the productive value of an individual was considered to
be the human capital value of that person. This concept arose from the interests in
economic growth and national income accounting. Investments in human beings were
considered important as higher skills would increase the productivity of those
individuals. Both skill development through education and good health were
considered necessary for improving labour productivity. Without good health, one
would not be able to perform to one’s full capability. This led to the thinking that if a
premature death could be avoided through investment in human health, society would
gain the labour contribution of that person and that would increase the national
income. The expected income that would be lost with a person’s premature death
became a measure of the value of life of that person at that time (Mushkin, 1962;
Blomquist, 2001).

Early economics viewed a person's productive contribution as determining the value

of their life. The premise for valuing the loss of life was once this productive worth.
An individual's productive value was seen as their human capital value, just as their
physical capital. The interests in national income accounting and economic growth
gave rise to this idea. Higher skill levels were thought to boost a person's productivity,
so investments in people were crucial. It was believed that increasing competence
through education and maintaining good health were both vital for raising labor
productivity. One couldn't work to their best potential without being in good health.
This got some to wondering if a premature death could be prevented.