RT Journal Article
T1 Valuation of safety under reference-dependent evaluation of income
A1 Robles-Zurita, José Antonio
K1 Salarios
AB We analyze data of a Spanish nationally-representative survey where subjects reported their willingnessto pay (WTP) for road safety improvements, specifically they hypothetically paid for a reduction of therisk of a road fatality and several injuries. Respondents also reported their current income (CI) andpermanent income (PI). The latter refers to their normal income once they considered various stages oflow/high earnings throughout their entire lives. Consequently, we define relative income as thecomparison of CI with respect to PI. Three income frames are generated as explanatory variables: gain(with CI > PI); neutral (with CI = PI); and loss scenario (with CI < PI). Surprisingly, wefind that conditionalon current income, and on a set of characteristics, those respondents in gain frame reported higher WTPthan those in neutral and loss scenario. Further analysis shows that the income frames effect is higher andmore significant for the older half-sample (>45), being about three or four times higher than for theyounger subset. Possible interpretations of the role of PI as a reference point are considered given theresults. A reference-dependent utility function of income, where PI is the reference point, is proposed todescribe the monetary valuation of safety within the theoretical framework previously developed in thesafety economics literature.
PB Elsevier
YR 2015
FD 2015-03-24
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/37070
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/37070
LA eng
NO Robles-Zurita, J. A. (2015). Valuation of safety under reference-dependent evaluation of income. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 79, 70-79.
NO Junta de Andalucía for its support (proyecto de excelencia código P09-SEJ-4992) and the Spanish Road Traffic Directorate General (Dirección General de Tráfico) for an unrestricted grant
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 21 ene 2026