Reliability of Meta-analytic Benefit Transfers of International Value of Statistical Life Estimates: Tests and Illustrations

If there are no applicable domestic studies, there are many ways to utilize the international literature to conduct benefit transfer (BT). In the health economics literature simple unit transfer methods, rather than function-based methods, are the most commonly used. In this chapter we utilize a large database of Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) estimates, derived from stated preference studies worldwide, to investigate the reliability of meta-analytic BT (MA-BT) and compare this method with simple unit transfers in a case study illustration. Meta-regression analysis is a way to estimate how different policy-relevant factors affect VSL and is thought to improve accuracy in BT. We discuss in particular how different quality criteria to screen available studies and VSL estimates may influence BT accuracy. Results show that quality screened MA-BT models give lower transfer errors, and in the case study example MA-BT methods achieve accuracy gains over the use of unit transfer methods. However, the unscreened MA-BT method achieved around the same accuracy as the best unit transfers based on quality screened data . Hence, transfer accuracy may in some contexts depend as much on the quality of the underlying data as on the BT method itself.