Standard benefit-cost analysis often ignores distortions caused by taxation and the heterogeneity of taxpayers. In this paper, we theoretically and numerically explore the effect of imperfect taxation on the public provision of mortality risk reductions (or public safety). We show that this effect critically depends on the source of imperfection as well as on the individual utility and survival probability functions. Our simulations based on the calibration of distributional weights and applied to the COVID-19 example suggest that the value per statistical life, and in turn the optimal level of public safety, should be adjusted downwards because of imperfect taxation. However, we also identify circumstances under which this result is reversed, so that imperfect taxation cannot generically justify less public safety.

标准收益成本分析通常会忽略税收和纳税人异质性造成的扭曲。在本文中，我们在理论上和数字上探讨了不完全征税对降低死亡率风险（或公共安全）的公共提供的影响。我们表明，这种影响严重取决于缺陷的来源以及个人效用和生存概率函数。我们基于分配权重的校准并应用于COVID-19示例的模拟表明，由于税收不完善，应将每个统计生命的值以及公共安全的最佳水平下调。但是，我们还确定了在何种情况下可以冲销此结果，因此不完善的税收不能普遍为减少公共安全辩护。