2025 – A pivotal year for economic evaluation in VALESOR

In 2025, VALESOR will provide robust willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for health improvements, incorporating multi-contaminant exposures and comorbidities for key health endpoints. These estimates will be complemented by social cost figures for treatment, derived from high-quality cost of illness (COI) studies.

The year will also see significant progress in refining equity-weighted cost-benefit analysis (CBA) frameworks, offering actionable insights for policymakers in Europe. Two survey instruments have been developed to elicit WTP for health improvements. The first survey, which addresses health endpoints such as heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, and asthma, will be implemented in France, Serbia, Sweden, and Greece. The second survey, focusing on asthma, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, stroke, dementia, and lung cancer, will cover France, Serbia, Sweden, Italy, Poland, and the UK. Additionally, the project will explore methodologies for transferring these values across different nations.

Through this work, VALESOR aims to support evidence-based policy by producing value sets for health improvements related to environmental hazards. Key deliverables will include policy briefs on the complementarity or substitutability of health conditions, integrating equity considerations into CBA, and developing COI values across Europe. This will facilitate coherent policymaking and comprehensive evaluations of health hazards in environmental policy.

/ Daniel Herrera, Université Paris Dauphine and Maria Kostopoulou, Université Paris Dauphine.