Car safety is an interesting one, because most of the 'safety innovations' we employ today were invented as 'factory options', not as a result of regulations (w

Car safety is an interesting one, because most of the 'safety innovations' we employ today were invented as 'factory options', not as a result of regulations (which were later used to make the features mandatory). Most economists evaluate safety features as 'luxury goods', usually employed in high-cost vehicles before migrating downmarket. The question how valuable consumers perceive safety features to be, and what their rate of adoption would be; additionally, which ones would they choose? Two interesting examples are seat-belts and air-bags; the former is in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per life saved, and the latter is generally estimated to be in the millions of dollars per life saved. Was mandating the air-bag the optimal way to use that money, or did the government commit statistical murder (a term often used in the field).