Estimating the Value of a Statistical Life Lost Due to COVID-19 and Social Costs

Abstract

This is supposedly the first contingent valuation(CV) study which has estimated the value of a statistical life(VSL) lost due to COVID-19. The VSL was estimated to be 44.26 billion Won for Koreans. This VSL estimate was used to derive 144.40 trillion Won for the social cost of 32,625 premature deaths due to COVID-19 reported by January 9, 2023. This huge amount of cost is equivalent to 11.9% of the central government’s total budget for the same period. As for the local gvernments, the estimated social cost of Gyeonggi-do is the highest in the country: the estimate is 3.57 billion Won, which accounts for as much as 38.2% of the total budget of the Province. Busan-si and Gangwon-do show the highest social costs per 100,000 residents, and Sejong-si shows the lowest one. Also provided are examples of economic assessment by utilising the VSL estimate the study derived.