How Courts Assess Marital Contributions When Wrongful Death Occurs: An Interface of Legal Issues and Family Theory in the Courtroom

Abstract

This paper considers the narrow question of whether, in a wrongful death context, the right ofsurvivors to recover damages should be based on gross family income and household production or be limited to the income and household production of a decedent. It focuses on the interface between forensic economics and the literature of family economics. It suggests that the family bargaining literature could address measurement questions that are important to forensic economics. (J2, K4)