Preferences for life saving programs: how the public discounts time and age

In surveys of 3,000 households, we have found that people attach less importance to saving lives in the future than to saving lives today, and less importance to saving older persons than to saving younger persons. For the median respondent, saving six people in 25 years is equivalent to saving one person today, while for a horizon of 100 years, 45 persons must be saved for every person saved today. The age of those saved also matters; however, respondents do not weight lives saved by number of life-years remaining: For the median respondent, saving one 20-year-old is equivalent to saving seven 60-year-olds.