IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/boc/bocoec/523.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Calculating Compensation in Cases of Wrongful Death

Author

Listed:
  • Arthur Lewbel

    (Boston College)

Abstract

Death statutes in the United States list elements of loss for which a defendant must make compensatory payment. The element that economists as expert witnesses are called upon to calculate is net income, roughly defined as the decedent's income minus personal expenses. The existence of joint or shared consumption goods complicates the definition and calculation of net income. Net income can be interpreted as the money required for survivors to attain the same standard of living as before. Equivalence scales traditionally used for this type of calculation are flawed. A new method for calculating net income is proposed, based on a collective household model.

Suggested Citation

  • Arthur Lewbel, 2002. "Calculating Compensation in Cases of Wrongful Death," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 523, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 07 Jun 2002.
  • Handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:523
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://fmwww.bc.edu/EC-P/wp523.pdf
    File Function: main text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pollak, Robert A & Wales, Terence J, 1979. "Welfare Comparisons and Equivalence Scales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(2), pages 216-221, May.
    2. Martin Browning & Pierre-André Chiappori & Arthur Lewbel, 2013. "Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1267-1303.
    3. Muellbauer, John, 1977. "Testing the Barten Model of Household Composition Effects and the Cost of Children," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 87(347), pages 460-487, September.
    4. Frederic Vermeulen, 2002. "Collective Household Models: Principles and Main Results," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(4), pages 533-564, September.
    5. Browning, Martin, 1992. "Children and Household Economic Behavior," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 1434-1475, September.
    6. Lewbel, Arthur, 1989. "Household equivalence scales and welfare comparisons," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 377-391, August.
    7. Nelson, Julie A, 1988. "Household Economies of Scale in Consumption: Theory and Evidence," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1301-1314, November.
    8. Arthur Lewbel & Richard Weckstein, 1995. "Equivalence Scales, Costs of Children and Wrongful Death Laws," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 4(2), pages 2-2, December.
    9. Daniel T. Slesnick, 1998. "Empirical Approaches to the Measurement of Welfare," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 2108-2165, December.
    10. Jorgenson, Dale W & Slesnick, Daniel T, 1987. "Aggregate Consumer Behavior and Household Equivalence Scales," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 5(2), pages 219-232, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cherchye, Laurens & De Rock, Bram & Vermeulen, Frederic, 2012. "Economic well-being and poverty among the elderly: An analysis based on a collective consumption model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 985-1000.
    2. Berges, Miriam & Echeverría, Lucía & Rodríguez Biasone, Juan Ignacio, 2021. "El costo de los niños y su impacto en el presupuesto de las familias. Un análisis para Argentina," Nülan. Deposited Documents 3484, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.
    3. Donni, Olivier & Molina, José Alberto, 2018. "Household Collective Models: Three Decades of Theoretical Contributions and Empirical Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 11915, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Menon, Martina & Pendakur, Krishna & Perali, Federico, 2012. "On the expenditure-dependence of children’s resource shares," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 739-742.
    5. Jean-Paul Chavas & Eleonora Matteazzi & Martina Menon & Federico Perali, 2021. "Bargaining in the Family," CHILD Working Papers Series 88 JEL Classification: D1, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    6. Olivier Bargain, 2017. "Welfare analysis and redistributive policies," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(4), pages 393-419, December.
    7. Wilman Javier Iglesias Pinedo & Alexandre Bragança Coelho, 2018. "Using A Collective Model To Evaluate Intra-Household Inequality And Individual Poverty In Brazil," Anais do XLIV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 44th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 131, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    8. Bargain, Olivier & Donni, Olivier & Kwenda, Prudence, 2014. "Intrahousehold distribution and poverty: Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 262-276.
    9. Francisco Javier Lasso V. & Cristian Camilo Frasser L., 2015. "Calidad del empleo y bienestar: un análisis con escalas de equivalencia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 33(77), pages 117-132, June.
    10. Toshinobu Matsuda, 2005. "Differential Demand Systems: A Further Look at Barten's Synthesis," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(3), pages 607-619, January.
    11. Aline Bütikofer & Michael Gerfin, 2017. "The economies of scale of living together and how they are shared: estimates based on a collective household model," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 433-453, June.
    12. Olivier Bargain & Olivier Donni & Prudence Kwenda, 2011. "Intrahousehold Distribution and Child Poverty: Theory and Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire," Working Papers 2011-031, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    13. Frederic Vermeulen & André Watteyne, 2003. "Quand un et un ne font plus deux: calcul d'échelles d'équivalence intra-familiales au moyen d'un modèle collectif," Public Economics Working Paper Series wpechco, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centrum voor Economische Studiën, Working Group Public Economics.
    14. DECANCQ, Koen & FLEURBAEY, Marc & SCHOKKAERT, Erik, 2014. "Inequality, income, and well-being," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2014018, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    15. Martin Browning & Pierre-André Chiappori & Arthur Lewbel, 2013. "Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1267-1303.
    16. Alaa Al-Hinai & Hemanatha Jayasuriya & Pankaj B. Pathare, 2022. "Development of Guidelines and Procedures for Value Addition to Improve Productivity and Sustainability: Case of Dates in Oman," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-14, October.
    17. Vermeulen, Frederic & Watteyne, André, 2006. "Quand un et un ne font plus deux," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 82(1), pages 155-180, mars-juin.
    18. Bargain, Olivier & Donni, Olivier, 2009. "The Measurement of Child Costs: A Rothbarth-Type Method Consistent with Scale Economies," IZA Discussion Papers 4654, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Olivier Bargain & Olivier Donni & Monnet Gbakou, 2010. "The Measurement of Child Costs: Evidence from Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 41(1), pages 1-20.
    20. BARGAIN Olivier & DONNI Olivier, 2010. "The Measurement of Child Costs: A Rothbarth-Type Method Consistent with Scale Economies and Parents’ Bargaining," LISER Working Paper Series 2010-30, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    21. Olivier Bargain & Laurine Martinoty, 2019. "Crisis at home: mancession-induced change in intrahousehold distribution," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(1), pages 277-308, January.
    22. Bargain, Olivier & Donni, Olivier & Magejo, Prudence, 2011. "Intrahousehold Distribution and Child Poverty: Theory and Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire," IZA Discussion Papers 6029, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    23. Bargain, Olivier & Donni, Olivier, 2012. "Expenditure on children: A Rothbarth-type method consistent with scale economies and parents' bargaining," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 792-813.
    24. Fabrizio Balli & Silvia Tiezzi, 2011. "Equivalence Scales Declining with Expenditure: Evidence and Implications for Income Distribution," Department of Economics University of Siena 611, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    25. Zhizhin, Leonid & Knorre, Alex & Kuchakov, Ruslan & Skougarevskiy, Dmitriy, 2023. "Cost of crime in Russia: A compensating variation approach," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 69, pages 91-120.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Browning & Pierre-André Chiappori & Arthur Lewbel, 2013. "Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1267-1303.
    2. BARGAIN Olivier & DONNI Olivier, 2010. "The Measurement of Child Costs: A Rothbarth-Type Method Consistent with Scale Economies and Parents’ Bargaining," LISER Working Paper Series 2010-30, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    3. Bruce Bradbury, 2014. "Pensions for Singles and Couples," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(3), pages 480-498, September.
    4. Valérie Lechene, 1993. "Une revue de la littérature sur les échelles d'équivalence," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 110(4), pages 169-182.
    5. Matthew Gray & David Stanton, 2010. "Costs of children and Equivalence Scales: A Review of Methodological Issues and Australian Estimates," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 13(1), pages 99-115.
    6. Srikanta Chatterjee & Claudio Michelini & Ranjan Ray, 1994. "Expenditure Patterns and Aggregate Consumer Behaviour: Some Experiments with Australian and New Zealand Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 70(210), pages 278-291, September.
    7. Peter ven de Ven & Anne Harrison & Barbara Fraumeni & Dale W. Jorgenson & Paul Schreyer, 2017. "Measuring Individual Economic Well-Being and Social Welfare within the Framework of the System of National Accounts," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63, pages 460-477, December.
    8. Bargain, Olivier & Donni, Olivier, 2009. "The Measurement of Child Costs: A Rothbarth-Type Method Consistent with Scale Economies," IZA Discussion Papers 4654, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Pashardes, Panos, 1995. "Equivalence scales in a rank-3 demand system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 143-158, September.
    10. Lewbel, Arthur & Pendakur, Krishna, 2008. "Estimation of collective household models with Engel curves," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 350-358, December.
    11. Ahlheim, Michael & Schneider, Friedrich, 2013. "Considering Household Size in Contingent Valuation Studies," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79974, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    12. Hélène Couprie & Gaëlle Ferrant, 2015. "Welfare Comparisons, Economies of Scale and Equivalence Scale in Time Use," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 117-118, pages 185-210.
    13. Geoffrey Lancaster & Ranjan Ray, 1998. "Comparison of Alternative Models of Household Equivalence Scales: The Australian Evidence on Unit Record Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 74(224), pages 1-14, March.
    14. Olivier Bargain & Olivier Donni, 2009. "Revisiting the cost of children : theory and evidence from Ireland," Open Access publications 10197/2014, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    15. Michael Ahlheim & Ulrike Lehr, 2008. "Equity and Aggregation in Environmental Valuation," Diskussionspapiere aus dem Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Hohenheim 295/2008, Department of Economics, University of Hohenheim, Germany.
    16. Fabrizio Balli, 2012. "Are Traditional Equivalence Scales Still Useful? A Review and A Possible Answer," Department of Economics University of Siena 656, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    17. Bargain, Olivier & Donni, Olivier, 2012. "Expenditure on children: A Rothbarth-type method consistent with scale economies and parents' bargaining," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 792-813.
    18. Vincenzo Atella & Jay Coggins & Federico Perali, 2005. "Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 2(2), pages 117-144, January.
    19. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Khushboo Surana & Frederic Vermeulen, 2020. "Marital Matching, Economies of Scale, and Intrahousehold Allocations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 823-837, October.
    20. Alberto Alesina & Andrea Ichino & Loukas Karabarbounis, 2011. "Gender-Based Taxation and the Division of Family Chores," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 1-40, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    wrongful death; death statutes; adult equivalence scales; consumer demand; household bargaining; insurance. Classification- JEL:K1; D1; J17; C30; I31;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:523. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/debocus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.