On the value of time and human life

François Gardes (1, 2)

1 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
2 PSE - Paris School of Economics

The opportunity cost of time is estimated using a model based on domestic productions depending on monetary and time expenditures and a direct utility depending on produced commodities. These factors of domestic productions are measured by the matching of a Family Budget survey with a Time Use survey. The new model is estimated on Canadian, French, Polish, U.S. and Burkina-Faso statistics. It allows estimating the economic value of human life based on the integration of the marginal value of each instant during the individual's life cycle. This value is shown to give a different pattern across countries compared to their per capita GDP. Finally, the opportunity cost of time is shown to vary between commodities according to the possibility to substitute money and time in the domestic production. It also increases relatively of the average wage rate at a macro level, between countries, according to the degree of liberalization of the labor market.

Mots clés: opportunity cost of time; value of human life

Domaines: Economies et finances; Méthodes et statistiques

François Gardes. On the value of time and human life. 2018. ⟨halshs-01903596⟩