prostitute. the difficulty, evidently, is to disentangle the health risk and the financial reward from all the other motivations to choose a particular way of life. that isn't easy but economists try.
world bank economist paul gertler and his colleagues reckoned that mexican prostitutes valued their lives at about $50,000 per year, based on willingness to take money not to use condoms. at five times their annual earnings, that's a similar figure to workers accepting risky jobs in rich countries.
there are anomalies. steve freakonomics levitt and sociologist sudhir venkatesh calculated that chicago drug dealers seemed to value their entire lives at $50,000 to $100,000 - low indeed, even for poor young men whose career choice indicates a taste for risks.
whatever the frailties of these calculations, they are the best we have. and far from cheapening life, this sort of research often highlights just how valuable our safer, healthier modern lives really ar