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The Rationality of Automobile Seatbelt Usage: The Value of a Statistical Life and Fatality Risk Beliefs Jahn K. Hakes W. Kip Viscusi, Harvard Law School Subsequently published as "Automobile Seatbelt Usage and the Value of a Statistical Life," in Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 73, No. 3, 2007, 659-676. Download the Paper (PDF format) - May 29, 2004 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing. ABSTRACT: This article examines the rationality of seatbelt usage using an original data set of 465 adult respondents. People with high stated values of statistical life, who do not smoke, and who have risk beliefs that are highly elastic with respect to actual risks are more likely to use seatbelts, as economic theory predicts. Respondents' stated values of statistical life were similar on average to the value of life range of $2.2 million to $7.9 million computed from their revealed preferences for seatbelt usage, providing empirical support for the mutual consistency of these two approaches. SUGGESTED CITATION: Jahn K. Hakes and W. Kip Viscusi, "The Rationality of Automobile Seatbelt Usage: The Value of a Statistical Life and Fatality Risk Beliefs" (May 29, 2004). Harvard Law School. Harvard Law School John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics and Business Discussion Paper Series. Paper 475. http://lsr.nellco.org/harvard/olin/papers/475 | REPOSITORY HOME  | SEARCH  | MY ACCOUNT  | NELLCO HOME | Powered by bepress.