title: The Welfare Cost of Homicides in Brazil: Accounting for Heterogeneity in the Willingness to Pay for Mortality Reductions.
abstract: This paper estimates the health dimension of the welfare cost of homicides in Brazil incorporating age, gender, educational, and regional heterogeneities. We use a marginal willingness to pay approach to assign monetary values to the welfare cost of increased mortality due to violence. Results indicate that the present discounted value of the welfare cost of homicides in Brazil corresponds to roughly 78% of the GDP or, in terms of yearly flow, 2.3%. The analysis also shows that reliance on aggregate data to perform such calculations can lead to biases of around 20% in the estimated social cost of violence.
authors.affiliation: IPEA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cerqueira
authors.affiliation: Sao Paulo School of Economics - FGV, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rodrigo R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Soares
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006708:Homicide / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009026:Mortality; D061213:Mortality, Premature; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D014754:Violence / Q000191:economics*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Brazil; cost; marginal willingness to pay; value of life; violence; welfare