A Comment on “Self-Consumption in Wrongful Death Cases: Decedent or Family Income?”

Abstract

In a recent article in the Journal of Forensic Economics, Michael L. Brookshire and Frank L. Slesnick presented their analysis of the husband or wife decedent self-consumption literature. This comment presents two counter-arguments to their self-consumption methodology which renders their preference to the family income approach inconclusive. I first review the Brookshire and Slesnick make-whole damages doctrine and then I discuss the problems with forecasting household income.