Using hedonic regression techniques, estimates of the willingness-to-pay for changes in the risks of dying can be inferred from actual behavior in market situations involving risk-dollar tradeoffs. Thaler and Rosen (1975) pioneered this approach, obtaining estimates of the value of a statistical life using labor market data, in this paper we use the hedonic technique to obtain the first estimates of the value of a statistical life from data on the market for automobiles. Our estimated value of a statistical life for the sample as a whole is $3.357 million 1986 dollars. Copyright 1990 by MIT Press.

Scott E. Atkinson, Joe Kerkvliet, Dual Measures of Monopoly and Monopsony Power: An Application to Regulated Electric Utilities, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 71, No. 2 (May, 1989), pp. 250-257

Failure time models correcting for heterogeneity are used to explain the length of participation in a risky career. Using data from the National Football League, first we employ a class of techniques which ignore unobserved heterogeneity; hence these methods impose severe restrictions on the estimate hazard. We then examine a second class of techniques which correct for unobservables and thereby allow greater flexibility in the estimated hazard. Within this second class, we find that the estimated hazard using the Burr-12 density is much more accurate than densities in the first class, which include the exponential and Weibull. We expect that this density could be employed to successfully explain career duration in other high-risk, high-stress careers as well.

Scott E. Atkinson, Robert Halvorsen, A New Hedonic Technique for Estimating Attribute Demand: An Application to the Demand for Automobile Fuel Efficiency, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Aug., 1984), pp. 417-426

A model for testing all types of relative price inefficiency expands the Averch-Johnson effect and makes it possible to test for absolute price efficiency, which exists if the value of the marginal product for each factor is equated to factor price and implies both cost minimization and production of the optimal quantity of output. Duality theory is used to derive the empirical model using 1973 data for electric utilities. The results indicate that relative and absolute price efficiency were generally not achieved by electric utilities in that year. 36 references, 1 table.

A translog normalized restricted profit function is used to study the characteristics of the production function for electric energy. The results indicate that fuel choice in existing steam electric plants responds to changes in fuel prices. The production function is also tested for separability of fuels from capital and labor, homotheticity, returns to scale, and embodied technical change.

A translog normalized restricted profit function is used to study the characteristics of the production function for electric energy. The results indicate that fuel choice in existing steam electric plants responds to changes in fuel prices. The production function is also tested for separability of fuels from capital and labor, homotheticity, returns to scale, and embodied technical change.