DOW JONES, A NEWS CORP COMPANY
Sections
Aim higher, reach further.
Get the Wall Street Journal $12 for 12 weeks. Subscribe Now

Why the Government Puts a Dollar Value on Life

To analyze the benefits of high-cost regulations, pricing the priceless is a necessary calculation

How much is a life worth?

Most people balk at putting a number on something so precious, but when the government considers implementing expensive regulations to save lives, it must determine whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

“Some things are worth doing,” said Timothy Taylor, an economist and managing editor of the Journal of...

Popular on WSJ