This proposal seeks a modest level of funding to update and expand an earlier, highly influential study by this investigator. The previous study, completed just over a decade ago, made a major contribution to the quantitative analysis of risks and to the study of the regulation of risks by helping to place the health risks of various activities in perspective. In particular, reviewers commented on the ability of the earlier study to inform debates about the willingness of society to spend money to save a life across a variety of situations. However, this earlier study is both outdated (there have been important changes in risk management regulations in the past 10 years) and incomplete (there have been important changes in the nature of risky activities in the past 10 years). Thus the proposed study will be able to lead to better theory, because it will aid the study of risk comparisons, as well as better policy, because the results of the new study should quickly be substituted by decision makers for the less-relevant results of the older study. The project is unusual for the DRMS program, but it is highly supported because it is straightforward, important, and the policy-relevance is demonstrably high.
