What is the value of pain in cash? Or rather: How much is it worth to those who suffer from chronic pain to get rid of them altogether?
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir, professor at the Faculty of Economics, and Þórhildur Ólafsdóttir, post-doc at the Faculty of Business Administration, reflect upon this question with Edward C. Norton, professor at the University of Michigan in the article „Valuing Pain using the Subjective Well-being Method,“ recently published on the web of National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
This is a difficult question for economists as it is not simple to ask people bluntly how much they would be willing to pay in cold hard cash to get rid of their pain. Not many are in the habit of thinking about the monetary value of pain relief. People tend to say that good health is invaluable even though economists do not agree.
The research included data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) of over 22,000 Americans who participated during the years 2008-2014. The participants in the HRS survey were asked three key questions:
- How satisfied are you with your life as a whole?
- What was your income in the last few years
- Are you often troubled with pain?
The participants were asked other question important to the analysis, but that are not as imperative when discussing the basic principle.
It can be roughly estimated from the answers how much money a person with chronic pain needs additionally to have similar or the same quality of life as a healthy person.
In return it is possible to estimate the amount a healthy person has to loose so that their quality of life is en par with a comparable person in pain.
A pain free life costs approx 6,000 to 15,000 per day according to Tinna Laufey and Þórhildur's research, or 2 - 5.5 million ISK per year. The question is thus how many would be willing to sacrifice what could possibly be the equivalent of an annual salary for a life without pain and suffering?
The answers are that the greater the pain, to more people are willing to pay to get rid of it. Furthermore, individuals are will to pay more to get rid of pain the higher the annual salary.
The research was, however, limited to individuals older than 50 years old. The results might differ if younger people were taken into account. Tinna emphasises the big gap between actual dug costs and what people seemed to be willing to pay to get rid of the pain.
