The Turkish Journal of Public Health , cilt.8, sa.2, ss.113-128, 2020 (Hakemli Dergi)
Objective: International and domestic benefit transfers of the Value of a
Statistical Life (VSL) are conducted and the transfer errors are
examined for Turkey. Methods: For the international transfers, (1)
unit-value transfer with income adjustment, (2) the method developed by
ECOTEC (2001) for EU candidate counties and (3) Value of a Statistical
Life (VSL) derived for Turkey by recent literature are examined. For the
domestic transfers, transfer errors are compared between unit-value
transfer with income adjustment and function transfer methods. Results:
While the lower-bound ECOTEC estimate results in the least transfer
error, the unit-value transfer with income adjustment using the lower
bound OECD value is also confirmed as “Very Good Fit” transfer if the
income elasticity of VSL is 2.0-2.5 for the international benefit
transfer. For the domestic transfer, unit-value transfer with income
adjustment with base value = 740,838 TL (in 2012 TL) and the elasticity =
0.5 resulted in “Good Fit”. When the transfer is necessary between the
sites with different background risks, the function transfer with the
basic demographic variables could improve the transfer results.
Conclusions: We confirmed the applicability of benefit transfer
practices for Turkey in both international and domestic context and
identified the recommended methods of transfers together with the
specific level of the income elasticities of VSL.