To Örebro University

Findings in the traffic safety literature suggest that people value traffic risk reductions less when framed as a public good (e.g. infrastructure improvements) compared to when framed as a private good (e.g. personal safety equipment). This study contributes to this literature by reporting empirical evidence for the importance of controlling for the attributes of the goods used in such valuations. We focus on risks faced by vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians and compare valuations across private and public goods that vary in their attributes. When the goods are of an identical nature, we find no significant difference in valuations, resolving the controversy in previous findings. We find significant effects on valuations from using private or public provision, from offering the good as voluntary or mandated in use, and from changing the framing of the good between the private and the public versions. This adds further weight to the importance of controlling for many attributes.

Background: In Sweden, suicide is the most common external cause of death and is accounting for a growing share of potential years of life lost due to injuries. To help policymakers in how to prioritize interventions to reduce the number of the suicides, there is a need for economic evaluations. However, the number of economic evaluations of suicide prevention is scarce. One reason for this can be an insecurity about how to include a reduction in the suicide rate.

Aims of the Study: The aim of this paper is to review the literature of economic evaluations for suicide prevention, with a specific focus on the methods used to value the benefits from the intervention.

Methods: A literature review based on searches in the electronic bibliographic databases: PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar, from 2000 until October 2022. The search was independently conducted by two separate researchers. The goal was to identify papers which contained an original economic evaluation of an intervention aimed at preventing suicides that was published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Results: Our final search resulted in 515 hits, including duplicates. Most studies were excluded after the first screening of the abstracts and titles. The most common reason for exclusion was that the study did not evaluate an intervention for suicide prevention. A total of 13 papers was included in the final analysis.

Discussion and Conclusion: We find that there is a lack of economic evaluations of interventions to reduce the number of suicides. Furthermore, the ones that do exist varies both in quality and in which methods that are being used to measure and value the outcome.

Implications for Further Research: For the economic evaluations to be comparable and thereby helping policymakers to answer the question which intervention that is most cost-effective to reduce the number of suicides there is a need for standardization and methodological improvements.

This article discusses barriers to women's economic empowerment and opportunities for households headed by women to diversify incomes in the rural parts of Kenya. The study analyzes the full range of income-generating activities at the household level and also accounts for the different types of female-headed households, each of which face different constraints. The findings show that not only do female-headed households diversify and combine their incomes differently than male-headed households but also that there are differences among different groups of female-headed households.

Vilken utbildningsnivå en individ har ger stora konsekvenser för vilka möjligheter man har senare i livet. Detta är således en av anledningarna till att så många insatser syftar just till att säkerställa att individer får med sig en grundläggande utbildning. Många tidiga insatser i, men även utanför, skolan utvärderas utifrån deras effekt på elevens betyg/provresultat.

För att kunna beräkna nyttan av en sådan förändring, behöver en effekt på provresultat kunna länkas till mer långsiktiga effekter som har ett samhällsekonomiskt värde. Vi studerar i denna rapport hur en förändring av provresultaten från årskurs 3 till årskurs 6 påverkar elevens sannolikhet att klara gymnasiebehörigheten. Detta utfall kan sedan kopplas till långsiktiga effekter vars värde kan beräknas.

Denna rapport undersöker sambandet mellan resultat på nationella proven i matematik och svenska i årskurs 3 och årskurs 6 och sannolikheten att uppnå gymnasiebehörighet. I den första delen har vi först studerat sambandet mellan elevens demografiska karaktäristika och antalet klarade delprov i årskurs 3. Vi analyserar sedan endast de elever som år 2010 har gjort alla delprov i respektive ämne i årskurs 3. En större andel av flickorna (84,4 procent) än av pojkarna (71,24 procent) har klarat alla åtta delprov i svenska. Oberoende av elevens födelseland har en betydligt mindre andel av elever med två utrikesfödda föräldrar klarat alla delprov i svenska, än eleverna födda i Sverige som har minst en förälder född i Sverige.

Vi har sedan studerat elevers resultat på nationella proven i årskurs 3 och sannolikheten att i slutet av årskurs 9 vara behörig till gymnasiet och sannolikheten att ta en gymnasieexamen. Precis som väntat finner vi att det finns en stark koppling mellan resultaten i årskurs 3 och elevens senare framgång i skolan. Till exempel är nästan alla elever (93 procent) som klarade alla delprov i svenska i årskurs 3 behöriga till gymnasiet i slutet av årskurs 9, men redan bland de som endast klarade fyra delprov är motsvarande siffra enbart 58 procent. Sambandet ser liknande ut för de nationella proven i matematik och även här har de flesta elever som klarade samtliga delprov i årskurs 3 uppnått gymnasiebehörigheten i slutet på årskurs 9. Dock går det något bättre för de som inte klarat så många delprov, vilket kan indikera att språkkunskaper är av större vikt än kunskaper i matematik för att klara behörigheten till gymnasiet. En möjlig förklaring till detta kan vara att språket är en viktig nyckel för att ta till sig kunskaper även i andra ämnen.

Sammantaget tyder resultaten på att de nationella proven i årskurs 3 är en viktig indikator för hur det går för eleven senare i skolan och att resultatet på proven kan användas som en markör för behovet av tidigare insatser.

The aim of this study is to make a cost-benefit analysis of the Treatment Foster Care Oregon (TFCO) program, a treatment program for children and juveniles with behavioural problems who are placed in out-of-home placements. Compared to treatment as usual, TFCO has been shown to reduce the number of violent crimes. This study estimates the net present value (NPV) of the program by comparing the expected reduction in cost of violent crimes due to the introduction of the program to the incremental cost of the program. The result shows a positive NPV of $37,829 per participant, or a total NPV of $718,751.

This paper compares the value per statistical life (VSL) in the context of suicide prevention to that of prevention of traffic fatalities. We conducted a contingent valuation survey with questions on willingness to pay (WTP) in both contexts by administering a web questionnaire to 1038 individuals aged 18 to 80. We conjectured that WTP for a given impact on the number of fatalities would be lower for suicide prevention because suicide, at least to some degree, is the result of individuals' own decisions. However, this hypothesis was not supported by the within- or between-sample estimates of WTP or by responses to direct questions. Hence, no support is provided for the use of a lower valuation of the impact of suicide prevention than for risk-reducing programs in other fields, such as traffic safety. This implies that the same VSL should be used for evaluating suicide prevention interventions and for risk-reducing programs in other policy areas and funds for the prevention of fatalities should be directed to the area with the lowest cost per life saved.