Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/67207 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6994
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Due to Federal regulations, automobile air bag availability was a model-specific discontinuous function of model year for used vehicles in the 1990s and early 2000s. We use these discontinuities and the gradual increase in the supply of air bags to trace out the demand curve for air bags and the implied distribution of the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) across consumers. While imprecise, our preferred point estimates indicate that the median VSL is between $7 million and $13 million, but that a sizable portion of consumers placed negative values on air bags, probably due to distrust of the technology.
Subjects: 
value of statistical life
VSL
airbags
regression discontinuity design
quasi-experiment
JEL: 
J17
R41
I18
K32
L62
D12
D61
H40
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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