The benefit-cost study of the Clean Air Act conducted by the EPA a decade ago found that the benefit from that act far exceeds its cost. However, 85% of that benefit came from the EPA's valuation of the lives saved by the act. This valuation was based on estimates of the statistical value of a life, the majority of which were made using a hedonic wage equation. The analysis presented here shows that such a valuation may not accurately capture willingness to pay for improved air quality. In fact, it is only capable of doing so in a very special case, when air quality does not affect the probability of developing non-fatal conditions.

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使用统计生命的价值来衡量《清洁空气法案》的效益：评论

美国环保署十年前对《清洁空气法案》进行的效益成本研究发现，该法案的效益远远超过其成本。然而，其中 85% 的收益来自 EPA 对该法案所挽救生命的评估。这一估值基于对生命统计价值的估计，其中大部分是使用享乐工资方程得出的。这里提出的分析表明，这样的估值可能无法准确反映为改善空气质量付费的意愿。事实上，只有在非常特殊的情况下，即空气质量不影响发生非致命疾病的可能性时，它才能做到这一点。