Do the Near-Elderly Value Mortality Risks Differently?

Abstract
Wage hedonic models are estimated with the Health and Retirement Study to measure the risk-wage tradeoffs (value of statistical lives) for older workers. The analysis explicitly allows for multiple employment states, including retirement, using a multinomial selection model. The results suggest that the oldest and most risk-averse workers require significantly higher, not lower, compensation to accept increases in job-related fatality risks. © 2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Classification-JEL: I12