Table Of ContentForensic
Economics
Assessing Personal Damages
in Civil Litigation
Edited by Frank D. Tinari
F orensic Economics
F rank D. Tinari
E ditor
F orensic Economics
A ssessing Personal Damages in Civil Litigation
E ditor
F rank D . T inari
F lorham Park, N ew Jersey, U SA
I SBN 978-1-137-57109-0 ISBN 978-1-137-56392-7 (eBook)
D OI 10.1057/978-1-137-56392-7
L ibrary of Congress Control Number: 2016958209
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016
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T his book is dedicated to members of several electronic economic discussion
lists who willingly contribute their time and talent to help others improve
their skills as forensic economists
P REFA CE
T his volume sits, as it were, on the shoulders of numerous other works
produced by forensic economists over the past 30 years. This body of
knowledge serves as a foundation for anyone who seeks to work as an eco-
nomic expert or who desires to learn about the standards of measurement
that have been tested and developed in books and peer-reviewed articles.
T he present volume is an attempt to both look back and look forward
over the entire f eld of personal damage calculations in civil litigation in
the USA. Each chapter addresses a major aspect of economic damages
calculation, and does so by relaying what forensic economists have learned
about that particular topic, and what still needs to be addressed by future
research and analysis.
C ontributors to this volume, by and large, are among the most pub-
lished and recognized authorities in the f eld of forensic economics.
I want to take this opportunity publicly to thank each of them for their
willingness to participate in this project. I trust that readers will benef t
immensely from the content of their contributions.
F rank D . T inari
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C ONTENTS
1 A n Introduction to the Field of Forensic Economics 1
F rank D . T inari
2 T he Meaning of Earning Capacity 1 9
S tephen H orner and F rank S lesnick
3 Evolution of Worklife Expectancy Measurement 33
Gary R. Skoog and James E. Ciecka
4 P ersonal Consumption and Wrongful Death Damages 57
K urt V . K rueger and G ary R . A lbrecht
5 E stimating Educational Attainment and Earning
Capacity of a Minor Child 7 5
L awrence M . S pizman
6 I ncorporating Fringe Benef ts in Loss Calculations 89
J ames D . R odgers
7 F ederal and State Income Tax Aspects
in Forensic Economics 117
D avid S chap
ix
x CONTENTS
8 I ssues in Applying Discount Rates 1 35
D avid D . J ones
9 P otential Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Loss
Calculations 1 45
J oshua C ongdon-Hohman and V ictor A . M atheson
1 0 C hallenges in Valuing Loss of Services 161
F rank D . T inari
1 1 I ssues in Employment Litigation Analysis 179
T homas R oney and T imothy L anning
1 2 D ifferences Among State Court Jurisdictions
in Damages Calculations 191
D avid I . R osenbaum and D avid S chap
1 3 F orensic Economists and Their Changing
Viewpoints Over Time 2 05
M ichael L . B rookshire and F rank L . S lesnick
14 Hedonic Valuation Isues 221
Gary R. Skoog
15 Ethical Dimensions of Forensic Economics 245
Frank D. Tinari
1 6 U nderstanding Law as a Part of Forensic
Economic Practice 261
T homas R . I reland
1 7 E ffective Communications as a Forensic Economist 279
F rank D . T inari
CONTENTS xi
1 8 R ef ections on the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund 289
F rank D . T inari and J ohn O . W ard
1 9 D ifferences Among Nations in Measuring
Economic Damages 305
J ohn O . W ard
Index 317
N OTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
G ary R . A lbrecht o btained his master and doctorate degrees in
economics from Indiana University and he has a bachelor’s degree in
economics from Tulane University. His career in economics has covered
teaching at the university level, being an academic researcher, and serving
as an economic consultant. Since 1988, he has been employed as an
economist at Albrecht Economics in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His
current work focuses on forensic economics, economic theory, economic
forecasting, and applied econometrics.
M ichael L . B rookshire r eceived his Ph.D. in economics from the
University of Tennessee. He is a professor emeritus of economics at
Marshall University and is in his 41st year of practice as a forensic economist.
He has written two books and edited a third book on economic damages
and published approximately 50 peer-reviewed journal articles or book
chapters on the proper calculation of economic damages, including 15
refereed articles in the J ournal of Forensic Economics. He was a charter
member of the National Association of Forensic Economics in 1986,
served from 1990 to 2001 on the Board of Directors, in 1993 and 1994 as
the national president, and from 1999 to 2001 as its executive director.
J ames E . C iecka i s Professor of Economics at DePaul University.
He received his Ph.D. in economics from Purdue University. He has
published more than 50 papers in journals in the f eld of forensic economics
which include more than 25 papers with Gary R. Skoog, the coauthor of
the chapter on worklife expectancy in this volume. He is on the Board of
Editors and is the co-executive editor of the J ournal of Forensic Economic s.
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