Is it time to put a price on life?

As part of our new Reimagine series: "Healthcare", we explore how our researchers are rethinking some of humanity's greatest challenges. In this first installment, Prof. Pascal St-Amour examines the evaluation of the value of human life.

The rising costs of healthcare are reaching unprecedented levels. How can we reimagine healthcare systems to meet these challenges? Pascal St-Amour, Professor of Economics at HEC Lausanne (UNIL), addresses this question in his research "Valuing Life over the Life Cycle," which involves assessing the value of a person’s life across their entire lifespan.

“This may seem unsettling, but these conversations need to happen, and these calculations need to be made if we want to make better choices. That’s where economic theory and research are invaluable,” says Prof. St-Amour.

Valuing life is crucial in scenarios such as healthcare services deciding where to invest in medications, determining which demographic groups or illnesses to prioritize, or calculating compensation in wrongful death cases.

Prof. St-Amour suggests three methods for evaluating the value of human life: the human capital approach, the statistical life value approach, and calculating an individual’s willingness to pay for changes in their own longevity. His research focuses on the third approach, which contributes to estimating how much an individual or society is willing to pay—either to achieve positive health outcomes, to prevent adverse ones, or to assess the intrinsic value of life.

These models enable policymakers to better assess healthcare costs and make informed trade-offs between the quality and quantity of life.

Learn more about Pascal St-Amour’s research

Explore the rest of our health series at: www.hecoutreach.ch