What's the generic methodology for calculating the value of a statistical life?

Well, yeah.

Behind this value statistical life concept is the idea of identifying the willingness to pay in a population for a small reduction in mortality risk or, should I say, reducing the risk of dying before your life expectancy.

So as economists, we can derive an individual willingness to pay for this in one out of two ways.

First, reveal preference methods.

So we look at real world decisions on how people choose between risk and economic cost.

This can take many forms.

Can you give us maybe one or two examples where using updated VSL estimates could actually change a decision that's made on the ground?