Valuing lives

[E]conomists have to assess the value of human lives in order to decide how much ought to be spent on matters like road improvements, safety measures, health costs and pollution controls. These economic measures of the value of a life are the subject of this paper. When I first heard of the attempts of economists to put a monetary price on the value of a life I was sure that such measures would have to be at best hopelessly partial and at worst morally objectionable. I now think I was wrong on both counts and in this paper I shall argue that: (i) it is morally permissible to put a price on a person's life; and (ii) there is a theoretically adequate way of determining such a price.