The Value of Human Life

Defining the numerical value of human life is not one of social economics¿ traditional tasks, and it is not too popular among many people, either. Human life is not an interchangeable good and its value is not an economic category. The state (i.e., the power body created by all individual people ¬ the society ¬ in order to help the articulation of the preferences of its members), however, spends money for the protection of its citizens. In exchange, it must give up other things, such as building schools or increasing the wages of public servants. On what basis can we decide on how much we should spend on saving human lifes from the fairly limited budget, as we are facing countless alternatives? The techniques, methods and results of cost-benefit analysis can help find an answer to this question. In this book we go through all the theoretical issues related the topic as well as calculate a concrete numerivcal value in a concrete time and place: in Hungary at the millenary. The work shuold be interesting for economists, sociologists and also people with totally different job characterised by having a common interest: what is human life and whether it has a value we can determine.