Lives v livelihoods, part 1: how can we measure the value of a life?

Policies that suppress or control the COVID-19 pandemic prevent illness and save lives, but exact an economic toll. How should we balance lives and livelihoods to determine which policy is best? In the first of two posts, Matthew Adler (Duke University/LSE), Richard Bradley (LSE), Maddalena Ferranna (Princeton), Marc Fleurbaey (Princeton and Paris School of Economics), James Hammitt (Harvard) and Alex Voorhoeve (LSE) compare the benefit-cost and social welfare approaches to doing so.