dojN000944.xml

dojN000944.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2001-12-26

Wednesday, December 26, 2001 2:20 PM
Work life expectancies

1. As you must be aware the DOL tables on "Worklife Estimates" as based
on data from 1979-80. Since then female labor force participation has
grown substantially. Studies using more recent data (and replicating
the methods used by the BLS) give female worklife expectancies that are
10-16% higher than the outdated BLS study. See, for example, James
Ciecka, Seth Epstein, and Jerry Goldman, "A Markov Process Model of
Work-Life Expectancies Based on Labor Market Activity in 1997-98,"
Journal of Legal Economics, Volume 9, Number 3, Winter 1999-00, Table 8.

2. I am puzzled by the table showing losses for a single decedent
without children. Who would qualify for this award? In those cases
where there is a spouse and/or children it is clear that they would have
shared the earnings of the deceased. For single decedents, who would
have shared the after consumption offset earnings? Perhaps after
adjustment for dededent's consumption there will be little remaining for
distribution for this category of victim. My point here, essentially,
is that in presenting explanation of the calculations of economic loss
to the public some specific comments need to be made about this special
category of victim.

Individual Comment
Syracuse, NY

2001-12-26