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12.5 • International Environmental Issues 293

Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE) values a statistical human life at $7.4 million (in 2006 U.S. dollars,

which corresponds to a little more than $10.5 million in February 2022.)

Economists value a human life on the basis of studies of the value that people actually place on human lives in their

own decisions. For example, some jobs have a higher probability of death than others, and these jobs typically pay

more to compensate for the risk. Examples are ocean fishery as opposed to fish farming, and ice trucking in Alaska

as opposed to truck driving in the “lower forty-eight” states.

Government regulators use estimates such as these when deciding what proposed regulations are “reasonable,”

which means deciding which proposals have high enough benefits to justify their cost. For example, when the U.S.
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