The value of safety improvements - NZIER Insight 107

Economic analysis of safety programmes needs values to place on benefits such as preventing fatalities and injuries.

Following an update and increase in the values used for land transport in New Zealand, this Insight explains the reasons and methods used to ensure safety is given due consideration in cost-benefit analysis alongside other more readily calculable items such as values of savings in travel time, vehicle operating costs and emissions.

It also examines how new values for transport safety influence activities beyond transport and identifies implications of variations in value across different branches of government.