TY  - JOUR
AU  - Liu,Jin-Tan
AU  - Hammitt,James K.
TI  - Effects of Disease Type and Latency on the Value of Mortality Risk
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10012
PY  - 2003
Y2  - October 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10012
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10012.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jin-Tan Liu
Department of Economics
National Taiwan University
21 Hsu-Chow Road
Taipei (100), TAIWAN
Tel: 886-2-23519641/520
Fax: 886-2-2351-1826
E-Mail: liujt@ntu.edu.tw

James Hammitt
Harvard University (Center for Risk Analysis)
718 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
E-Mail: jkh@harvard.edu
AB  - We evaluate the effects of disease type and latency on willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce environmental risks of chronic, degenerative disease. Using contingent-valuation data collected from approximately 1,200 respondents in Taiwan, we find that WTP declines with latency between exposure to environmental contaminants and manifestation of any resulting disease, at a 1.5 percent annual rate for a 20 year latency period. WTP to reduce the risk of cancer is estimated to be about one-third larger than WTP to reduce risk of a similar chronic, degenerative disease. The value of risk reduction also depends on the affected organ, environmental pathway, or payment mechanism: estimated WTP to reduce the risk of lung disease due to industrial air pollution is twice as large as WTP to reduce the risk of liver disease due to contaminated drinking water.
ER  -