[fr] La valorisation économique d’une diminution du risque de mortalité recourt de plus en plus fréquemment aux techniques d’évaluation contingente. Celles‑ci consistent à interroger un échantillon d’individus sur leur «consentement à payer » (CAP) pour réduire ce risque à partir de scénarios hypothétiques. Les CAP dépendent toutefois de nombreux facteurs et notamment de la nature du risque sous‑jacent et du scénario proposé pour le réduire. Cet article s’intéresse à la diminution du risque de mortalité associé à une exposition à la pollution atmosphérique et teste l’effet d’une modification du contexte d’évaluation hypothétique à travers trois scénarios : un nouveau médicament, un déménagement et de nouvelles réglementations. Pour analyser les CAP déclarés dans les différents scénarios, nous définissons un cadre d’analyse unifié, théorique puis économétrique, qui prend en compte les préférences des participants pour le présent, ainsi que celles des autres membres du ménage. Deux résultats en découlent. Les taux d’actualisation implicites estimés, spécifiques à chacun des scénarios hypothétiques, se révèlent significativement différents. De l’ordre de 7 % pour le scénario «déménagement » , ils sont respectivement de 24 % et 26 % pour les scénarios «médicament » et «réglementation » . Il en résulte des «valeurs d’évitement d’un décès » (VED) moyennes très différentes entre le scénario «déménagement » (801 000) d’une part, et les scénarios «médicament » (299 000) et «réglementation » (252 000) d’autre part.
[en] The economic value placed on a reduction in the risk of mortality relies more and more frequently on contingent assessment techniques. These consist in questioning a sample of individuals on their “ willingness to pay” (WTP) in order to reduce this risk, on the basis of hypothetical scenarios. These WTP nevertheless depend on many factors, especially the nature of the underlying risk and the scenario proposed to reduce it. This article deals with reducing the risk of mortality associated with exposure to atmospheric pollution and tests the effect of a change in the hypothetical context of assessment through three scenarios : a new drug, a house move and new regulations. To analyse the “ willingness to pay” stated in the different scenarios, we define a unified, theoretical then econometric framework of analysis, taking into account the preferences of the participants at present, and also those of other household members. There are two main results. The estimated implicit updating rates, specific to each hypothetical scenario, were seen to differ significantly. They were about 7% for the “ move” scenario and 24% and 26% for the “ drugs” and “ regulations” scenarios respectively. Results showed that the average “ values set for avoiding death” differed greatly between the “ move” scenario (801,000) on the one hand, and the “ drugs” (299,000) and “ regulations” (252,000) scenarios on the other hand.

Numerous epidemiological studies have found a link between air pollution and health. We are reviewing a collection of published intervention studies with particular focus on studies assessing both improvements in air quality and associated health effects.
Interventions, defined as events aimed at reducing air pollution or where reductions occurred as a side effect, e.g. strikes, German reunification, from the 1960s onwards were considered for inclusion. This review is not a complete record of all existing air pollution interventions. In total, 28 studies published in English were selected based on a systematic search of internet databases.
Overall air pollution interventions have succeeded at improving air quality. Consistently published evidence suggests that most of these interventions have been associated with health benefits, mainly by the way of reduced cardiovascular and/or respiratory mortality and/or morbidity. The decrease in mortality from the majority of the reviewed interventions has been estimated to exceed the expected predicted figures based on the estimates from time-series studies.
There is consistent evidence that decreased air pollution levels following an intervention resulted in health benefits for the assessed population.

While international and national policies call for containing urban expansion to conserve agricultural and natural lands, France is still experiencing a relatively strong sprawl. So we analyze the determinants of land-use plans favoring a parsimonious allocation of land to urban development. A state of the art of theoretical models as well as quantitative and qualitative empirical studies is confronted with a qualitative field study (semi-directive interviews among municipal elected officials in South-Eastern France). This allows a typology of municipalities according to their urban development strategies. Thus, determinants such as agricultural activity?s dynamism and image, elected official?s political legitimacy, previous or surrounding municipality?s policies and existing built-up patterns are outlined while they are usually not considered in theoretical models and their empirical validation. Finally, we sketch a model of local determinants of non-built land conservation more in line with the French context.

Vaccination campaigns to prevent the spread of epidemics are successful only if the targeted populations subscribe to the recommendations of health authorities. However, because compulsory vaccination is hardly conceivable in modern democracies, governments need to convince their populations through efficient and persuasive information campaigns. In the context of the swine-origin A (H1N1) 2009 pandemic, we use an interactive study among the general public in the South of France, with 175 participants, to explore what type of information can induce change in vaccination intentions at both aggregate and individual levels. We find that individual attitudes to vaccination are based on rational appraisal of the situation, and that it is information of a purely scientific nature that has the only significant positive effect on intention to vaccinate.