Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
We examine the value of a statistical life of a citizen in the interwar Soviet Union based on the preferences of its dictator. We model and specify Stalin’s preferences for a policy of statistical repression, an integral feature of the Great Terror (1937–1938). We use regional variation in the victims generated by this policy to structurally estimate the value that Stalin would have been willing to accept for a reduction in citizens’ fatality risk. Our estimate of this value, roughly $85,000 (in 2019 U.S. dollars), is substantially smaller than estimates based on citizens’ willingness to pay in modern India and in the United States in 1940.