Doubling the estimated value of life: Results using new occupational fatality data

Using a new series of data on occupational fatalities compiled by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the authors reassess value-of-life calculations based on labor market tradeoffs between fatality risks and wages. The new data are less subject to the problems of measurement error that plague previously used measures of risk. They indicate higher risk levels than previously believed and a significantly different composition of risk levels within industries. The more comprehensive risk data yield value-of-life estimates of $5 million or more—at least twice as large as estimates obtained using the Bureau of Labor Statistics risk data employed in previous studies.     

The Progressive Ratcheting of Environmental Laws: Impact on Public Management

One of the problem-making tendencies in environmental policymaking has been an incremental approach to regulation and control. Either because the full dimensions of an environmental problem are not perceived or because political resistance compels step-by-step action, environmental controls tend to be applied progressively, beginning with nominal, largely ineffectual, retroactive declarations. Failing to meet objectives, laws are toughened and extended year by year until the severty of sanctions begins to defeat their intended effects. The fractionized state of environmental law, focusing on specific problems of pollution and subject to changes in interpretation, makes observance and enforcement difficult. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 could have facilitated the unification of environmental policy; unfortunately presidents and congresses have not chosen to use it for this purpose. Meanwhile, because environmental protection per se is relatively new to public law and policy and has few roots in the common law, private citizens aggrieved by political obstruction of their expectations have appealed to the courts for relief and compensation. Conservative courts have granted this relief under the "taking" clause of the Constitution. Extraordinary measures in constitutional law may be necessary to resolve an impasse in public policy resulting from conflict between public interests and private rights as interpreted by the judiciary.