On the Contingent Valuation of Safety and the Safety of Contingent Valuation: Part 2 - The CV/SG "Chained" Approach

This article reports the results of a study aimed at estimating a willingness-to-pay based value of statistical life for road risks using a multi-stage approach which involves "chaining together" responses to contingent valuation and standard gamble questions.The rationale for employing a multi-stage approach is to break the wealth/risk of death trade-off down into a number of conceptually manageable steps, thereby trying to attenuate the various biases that appear to be pervasive in responses to more direct contingent valuation questions in the health and safety field.     

Tort claims for road accident compensation and social security in South Africa

The statutory scheme of road accident compensation in South Africa encapsulates both the common law of tort or delict and the residue of liability insurance principles. The absence of meaningful interaction between the road accident compensation scheme and the broader social security system raises significant challenges. There are dissonant responses to the targeted misfortune, provision of benefits, financing, choice of remedies and socioeconomic-political priorities selected by the South African government. It is argued that the current scheme should be identified as falling squarely within a state-funded and regulated scheme of comprehensive social protection.     

National survey evidence on disasters and relief: Risk beliefs, self-interest, and compassion

A nationally representative sample of respondents estimated their fatality risks from four types of natural disasters, and indicated whether they favored governmental disaster relief. For all hazards, including auto accident risks, most respondents assessed their risks as being below average, with one-third assessing them as average. Individuals from high-risk states, or with experience with disasters, estimate risks higher, though by less than reasonable calculations require. Four-fifths of our respondents favor government relief for disaster victims, but only one-third do for victims in high-risk areas. Individuals who perceive themselves at higher risk are more supportive of government assistance.     

Responsibility,scale and the valuation of rail safety

We report the results of two stated-preference surveys (one conducted using face-to-face interviews, the other via the internet) which examined how the values people place on preventing fatalities from rail accidents are affected by the extent to which victims are responsible for their death, and the scale of the accident. The results showed that respondents placed a premium on preventing deaths which involved a failure of the rail system, rather than the irresponsible behaviour of an adult victim, though this differential was less marked when the person behaving irresponsibly was a child, rather than an adult. However, the prevention of a death in a multiple-fatality accident was not accorded a significantly higher value than the prevention of death in the single-fatality case. As far as the overall results are concerned, there was an encouragingly close correspondence between the findings of the face-to-face and internet surveys.     

Alcohol and Road Safety: Some Criticisms of Research and Policy

This paper exposes and criticises some basic assumptions that inform research and policy on alcohol and road safety. Numerous official enquiries on road safety have identified alcohol as the greatest single contributing factor to accidents involving death and injury. Policy-makers have, furthermore, given priority to removing the drink-driver from the road through a combination of enhanced detection and law enforcement procedures. Few researchers or policy-makers, however, have questioned the effectiveness of focussing on the individual driver while the structure of the transport system remains essentially unchanged. They have, in the main, adopted a managerial approach to the problem of road death and injury, and failed to examine the theories on accident causation that underpin current road safety strategy. The paper outlines a road safety strategy which aims to reduce the probability of collisions by redressing the chronic imbalance in the uses of the motor car and other (particularly public) means of transport.     

大地震与社会福利政策建议

日本东北关东地区3.11大地震导致的灾难救援问题引发了日本学者对社会福利的关注。文章在考察大地震后灾区受灾者的心情、想法的基础上,从中国中央政府的应对措施、对口支援、临时住房、援助的差距、政府工作与志愿行动等方面梳理了中国四川地震救援的经验,指出日本社会结构正面临着三种危机的考验。第一,超老龄社会与少子化、人口减少社会的人口构造危机;第二,通货紧缩、经济萧条、日元升值、股票下跌等经济危机;第三,大地震、海啸、核电站事故带来的环境能量危机。日本可以参考和借鉴中国的经验开展大地震后的恢复、重建工作。受灾者的生活重建是重建的首要任务。在中央政府、地方自治体常设危机管理组织;明确灾害应对的程序;制定社会政策的基本目标;强化受灾者援助的政策手段;完善医疗、福利、护理服务;发展区域产业和开创就业;提供住房保障;着手能够对抗灾害的坚固的地域社会与街区建设。     

The Value of a Statistical Life in Transport: Findings from a New Contingent Valuation Study in Sweden

This article presents the results of a contingent valuation study from Sweden aimed at estimating the value of a statistical life (VOSL) in road traffic safety. Data on respondents' own subjective risk was collected by use of visual aids presented in a mail questionnaire. The relationship between willingness-to-pay (WTP) and absolute risk reduction was estimated by using a non-linear, least absolute deviation estimation method. This study generated an income-adjusted VOSL of SEK22.3 million (US$2.6 million). Analysis of WTP's sensitivity to probability variation indicates that in future studies, valuing risk reductions in road traffic, the magnitude of absolute risk and relative risk reductions to consider should be in perceptible range. On addition it should also be possible for respondents to compare the magnitudes of different risk reductions.     

论现行学生伤害事故赔偿责任制度之不足及完善

现行学生伤害事故赔偿责任制度存在四个方面的缺陷。首先,现行学生伤害事故赔偿责任制度诱使家长追求一个虚无的赔偿目标,造成了我国本已紧张的司法资源更趋紧张。其次,现行学生伤害事故赔偿责任制度过度增加了学校压力,影响了学校办学效果和办学声誉。再次,现行学生伤害事故赔偿责任制度使学生成为直接的受害者。最后,社会也受到深深的伤害:一是,学校在伤害事故赔偿中倒闭,所在社区的教育和社会发展面临困境;二是,学校陷入赔偿泥潭不能自拔,最终受到伤害的还是所在地区的教育和社会发展。     

The valuation of contingent claims markets

This article studies an agent's valuation of the right to trade in a complete contingent claims market. The proposed measure generalizes the Pratt (1964) risk premium, which captures the willingness to pay to replace a given risky wealth prospect with an actuarially equivalent, nonrisky wealth. Specifically, we define ageneralized risk premium to be the willingness to pay to trade at going market prices. If state prices are actuarially fair, the Pratt premium is obtained as a special case. We derive several properties of this generalized premium and note its relationship to the option price of a public project under uncertainty.     

The position of the victim-activist in crime victim service organizations

The emergence of community-based service organizations for victims of violent crime, rape, domestic violence, child abuse and murder have become a part of the organizational underpinnings of the crime victim movement. Prominent figures in this movement are the victim-activists who speak for victims because they have the experiential expertise that comes from being a victim (survivor). This study examines the organizational positions of two types of victims, the individually harmed victim and the family member of a crime victim. The findings show that although both types of victim-activists can speak as victims, family victims tends to hold unpaid authoritative positions such as board member or president, whereas individual victims hold a variety of positions. Victim status serves as a credential for decision-making positions in the case of family victims, and as a career credential for individual victims.     

The Political Consequences of Outsider Labour Market Status in the United States: A Micro‐level Study

This article contributes to recent research that seeks to understand the political consequences of ‘outsider’ labour market status. There is an emerging consensus that labour market outsiders have systematically different policy preferences and display systematically different political behaviour to securely employed ‘insiders’ in Europe. Yet the political consequences of outsider status in the USA are less clear. They may be expected to differ from those that have been documented in the European context, because: (1) the USA is characterized by low employment protection of insiders; and (2) there is evidence that Americans are more reluctant than Europeans to hold governments responsible for personal economic hardship. We therefore use the General Social Survey to examine how outsider labour market status is related to voting behaviour and to social policy preferences in the USA. We find that the concept of ‘labour market outsider’ – as conventionally operationalized – holds little explanatory power in the American context. Disaggregating the outsider category, our results suggest that the political consequences of outsider labour market status may be contingent on individual beliefs about government responsibility.     

Reforming the European Common Agricultural Policy: From price & income support to risk management

Over the last 30 years, the European Union has significantly reformed its Common Agricultural Policy by introducing direct payments to farmers and reducing price support levels. While the European agricultural prices become more volatile, all economic models assessing these reforms remain static and ignore the risk dimensions. This paper develops an original stochastic computable general equilibrium model capturing the different sources of risk, farmers’ risk attitude and risk contingent markets. We find that the reduction of price support levels has modest market impacts but negative global welfare effects by exposing risk-averse European farmers to the world price volatility. This issue is not solved by the direct payments, which have negligible market and global welfare impacts through their wealth effects. On the other hand, we find that unbiased futures markets can solve this global welfare issue by allowing European farmers to transfer their price risks. Therefore, European policymakers should ensure well-functioning risk contingent markets rather than maintaining rigid intervention price levels.     

Conceptualising service integration for inclusive activation: Exploring transferal and translation of models from health care

Conceptual frameworks are important for advancing systematic understanding in a field of research. Many conceptual models have been developed to study service integration, but few have addressed activation. Based on an outline of the literature on the integration of labour market services, we explored two complementary conceptual models from integrated care and assessed whether the models could be transferred to the context of inclusive activation. The transferral of conceptual models is contingent upon whether the significant features of inclusive activation are like those of health care, and whether barriers to integrated labour market services are considered. We argue that the models facilitate a more analytical focus on service integration. Nevertheless, the models must be adjusted to account for the significant position of workplaces and employers, the importance of frontline professionals' knowledge base, the co-production of service provision and the values characterising the service encounters.     

Risk Perceptions and Value of a Statistical Life for Air Pollution and Traffic Accidents: Evidence from Bangkok,Thailand

This paper presents results of two contingent valuation surveys conducted in Bangkok measuring individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce mortality risk arising from two risk contexts: air pollution traffic accidents Results from the risk perception survey disclose that respondents view the two risks differently. WTP to reduce air pollution risk is influenced by degrees of dread, severity, controllability and personal exposure, while WTP to reduce traffic accident risk is influenced by perceived immediate occurrence. Nevertheless, the value of a statistical life (VSL) for both air pollution and traffic accidents are comparable (US$0.74 to $1.32 million and US$0.87 to $1.48 million, respectively). This indicates that the risk perception factor alone has little impact on the VSL, a finding similar to previous studies using program choice indifferences.JEL Classification: I18, D61, J17, J28     

The Role of Distributional Coalitions in Welfare Regimes: Chile, Costa Rica and El Salvador

Do social policies in Latin America promote or discourage distribution? And if they do promote distribution, are coalitions a prerequisite? Drawing from a typology of welfare regimes elaborated for 18 Latin American countries, this article explores responses to these questions by addressing three emblematic cases: Chile, Costa Rica and El Salvador – that is, countries where the management of social risks primarily revolves around markets, states and families, respectively. Although the article is exploratory, findings suggest that societal coalitions have been, and are likely to continue to be, weak in market welfare regimes, strong in state welfare regimes and contingent to policy sectors in familialistic welfare regimes.     

An Empirical Study into the Psychosocial Reactions of Staff Working as Helpers to those Affected in the Aftermath of two Traumatic Incidents

Correspondence to Professor Dorota Iwaniec, Institute of Child Care Research, Queen's University Belfast, 5a Lennoxvale, Belfast BT9 5BY, Northern Ireland, UK. Summary This paper will address the outcome of the first empirical studyon the psychosocial impact on four groups of professional staffinvolved as helpers in the aftermath of two major incidents.The two incidents selected were the Kegworth Air disaster thatoccurred in the East Midlands area of England in 1989 and aterrorist bombing on the Shankill Road Belfast, Northern Ireland(NI) in 1993. The four groups of staff chosen for the research,both in England and Northern Ireland, were social workers, ambulancepersonnel, accident and emergency nurses and clergy. The policyand practice implications of the study were used to developa training programme for those who have to cope with traumain their workplace. The need for such training was based onthe hypothesis that pre-training will help to ameliorate anynegative reactions that may be experienced by the helpers. Theresults from both incidents were compared to highlight the impactof the work on helpers working with victims from a single incidenttrauma and in a situation where there was multiple incidenttraumatization.     

Pan‐European pension funds: Current situation and future prospects

The competitive pressures arising from European economic integration increasingly challenge the territorial sovereignty of national welfare states. This generates the need to situate domestic social security schemes amid the European Union's national and supranational as well as economic and social spaces. At the trans‐national level, the European Commission's 2003 Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) Directive created the illusion that a single market for occupational pensions would shortly be within reach. This did not happen, however, as IORPs — being at one and the same time financial vehicles and social insurance institutions — embody the constitutional asymmetry between policies promoting market efficiency and policies promoting social protection. Whereas the elimination of financial and tax barriers has proceeded smoothly, harmonization of the social and labour components within the occupational pension domain did not occur, slowing down the development of pan‐European pension plans. Nonetheless the road towards a single occupational pension market is still open, with first positive results emerging from the greater involvement of corporate and supranational actors.     

Constructing Unemployment: Britain and France in Historical Perspective

Unemployment emerged as a specific social issue in the late‐19th century, but the nature of the threat it posed and the governing instruments available to address it varied widely. Using Britain and France as strongly contrasting cases, this article demonstrates the variable and historically contingent constructions of unemployment as a problem, and demonstrates how policy to address it was developed using administrative agencies that embodied specific, normative visions of how society and employment should operate. The different governing trajectories through which the issue was tackled is analyzed in terms of the context within which the problem of unemployment originally emerged. The article demonstrates the socio‐political nature of unemployment's construction and, with reference to recent labour market change, questions its utility as a means of assessing economic or social well‐being.     

On the Contingent Valuation of Safety and the Safety of Contingent Valuation: Part 1-Caveat Investigator

This article reports the results of two studies aimed at testing and refining a procedure for estimating willingness-to-pay based monetary values of safety using the contingent valuation method. In spite of the fact that respondents were given the opportunity to discuss various safety issues and key concepts in focus group meetings held in advance of individual interviews, and were also given ample opportunity to revise their responses in the light of the overall pattern of these responses, the results show clear evidence of extensive and persistent insensitivity to the scale and scope of the safety improvements that were specified in the contingent valuation questions, as well as vulnerability to framing effects. This clearly casts serious doubt on the reliability and validity of willingness-to-pay based monetary values of safety estimated using conventional contingent valuation procedures.     

灾后重建过程中的社会工作介入

灾后重建工作是一项复杂的系统工程,社会工作以“助人自助”的专业价值理念,其服务领域相当广泛,灾害援救和灾后重建是社会工作介入的重要领域之一。社会工作运用专业方法对灾民进行科学的需求评估,确保灾民作为灾区重建的主体性地位;针对庞大的社会救助资源,社会工作合理统筹、整合资源,充当计划执行的协调者角色;针对灾区社会结构的破坏,通过社会工作的专业方法重建社会结构,重塑灾民场域。