OBJECTIVES: The economic literature suggests the Value of Statistical Life (VSL) as a common measure of efficiency for life saving interventions throughout different societal sectors. Policy decisions in the Netherlands have not yet been explicitly based on this measure, however a trade off between wealth and mortality risk is made implicitly when deciding whether or not to implement a life saving intervention. This study aimed to gain insights into this trade off, referred to as Implicit Value of Statistical Life (IVSL), by means of a retrospective investment analysis of interventions implemented in the Netherlands. METHODS: A literature search was conducted to find life saving intervention cases meeting the requirements for a uniform IVSL calculation and additional inclusion criteria. A sample of 10 cases was included in the study and concerned interventions implemented in the water control, consumer safety, transport and health care sector. RESULTS: IVSL estimates derived from the cases ranged from €1 to almost €11 million. Differences were most extreme when comparing IVSL estimates of interventions implemented in different societal sectors. However, estimates also varied greatly between interventions in the same sector and even within the same intervention, when critical assumptions were altered. CONCLUSIONS: Despite limited comparability of IVSL estimates, our findings suggest that there are great imbalances between societal investments for preventing a statistical death. This highlights the need to develop ways to increase transparency and efficiency of policy decisions by systematically taking the Value of Statistical Life into account. Given the conceptual problems inherent to the IVSL, future research should focus on the potential merit of explicit VSL measures for decision making. Since the consequences of life saving interventions are not restricted to mortality reduction, research should also address the question whether there is a need to incorporate broader health and other consequences of life saving interventions in the measure of efficiency.