ALTRUISM AND THE VALUE OF OTHER PEOPLES SAFETY

This article considers the manner in which people's altruistic concern for other people's safety should be incorporated in willingness-to-pay based values of statistical life and safety. It is shown that, within a utilitarian framework, the traditional prescription that such values should take full account of people's willingness to pay for others' safety is valid if and only if altruism is exclusively safety-focused, in the sense that while i is concerned for j's safety, he is quite indifferent to other determinants of j's utility. © 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers.