Conference Agenda

In May 2019, we surveyed persons aged 45-60 in the Czech Republic, asking them to report information about their Willingness to Pay (WTP) for reductions in the risk of dying from cancer. One important feature of that survey is that study participants had to infer the size of such risk reductions from changes in two probabilities: The chance of getting cancer, and the chance of surviving it, assuming that they got cancer in the first place. Our respondents appeared to be willing and able to perform such calculations and form a WTP for the resulting mortality risk reductions, as their WTP was perfectly proportional to the size of the risk reduction and met other internal validity criteria. Over five years later, in November 2024, we conducted the same survey, using the same questionnaire and mode of administration, to a new sample of members of the general public aged 45-60 in the Czech Republic. The new sample matches almost perfectly the old one in terms of education, and was wealthier in nominal terms, but not in real terms. We find that in this latter wave respondents are slightly more responsive to the size of the mortality risk reduction, but the overall VSL is lower than that estimated from the 2019 survey responses. Respondents also indicate that the VSL is lower when cancer brings stronger limitations to everyday activities.