Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Rationalising the stark differences between the human capital and the statistical values of a human life is complicated by the absence of common foundations. We solve a human capital investment model with longevity risk to characterise the human capital. The associated indirect utility yields the willingness to pay against mortality; the marginal willingness to pay solves the value of a statistical life. Indifference between life and certain death characterises the limiting willingness to pay and provides a gunpoint value. A structural estimation reveals similar human capital (300,000) and gunpoint value (251,000) and explains a much larger statistical value (4.98 million) by a strongly concave willingness to pay.