What is She Worth? How (or How Not) to Value a Woman's Life
Please join us for this week's 2008-2009 Feinberg Lecture Series event with Nancy Folbre, Professor of Economics at UMass Amherst. She is the author of Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family.
This lecture is titled "How Much are You Worth? How (or How Not) to Value a Human Life."
From Professor Folbre: "This presentation will recount a history of efforts to estimate the value of human lives, ranging from early nineteenth century economic debates through the development of wrongful death suits and life insurance to the Feinberg Commission's decisions regarding public compensation for the families of victims of 9/11. Gender differences play a surprisingly consistent role over this period. Reluctance to value unpaid family work and lower projected lifetime earnings for most women typically lead to lower levels of compensation for the death of women compared to men. Exploration of this particular valuation issue illustrates the gender bias deeply embedded in conventional economic accounting frameworks."
