Economists say balancing the pain of loss with the right amount of money could lead to more rational court awards
If money could buy happiness, how much would it take to bring it back after the death of a partner, child or spouse? Most of us would be loathe to assign such a value, if not offended by the question, but two economists have attached such dollar values to deaths by comparing the way that lost loved ones lower scores on happiness surveys with the way that greater incomes boost scores. More than just a gruesome exercise, they say they hope it will provide courts with a way to more fairly award damages.
"It's a very black thing to talk about," says economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England, but courts regularly award damages to bereaved survivors after the death of a loved one. Such awards, however, are not necessarily based on well considered rules. In the U.K., the 1976 Fatal Accidents Act provides for a lump sum of $20,000 to a surviving spouse or the parents of a minor. Recent U.S. court cases have valued life at as much as $18 million or as little as $10,000, according to a 2005 study.
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