Economics 444. Assessment of Damages in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death.

 This course reviews existing methodologies for standard damage categories in forensic economic analysis. Topics included are: Methods for establishing base earnings; use of age-earnings profile data; developing projections of earnings rate increases; choosing among potential discount rates; analysis of fringe benefit packages; statistical worklife tables versus joint conditional probabilities of earnings loss analysis (the LPE system); net discount rates and the stationarity controversy; concepts and measurement of household services (sometimes also called family services); analysis of personal consumption and/or personal maintenance for wrongful death cases; the hedonic damage controversy.

Economics 445. Law and Forensic Economics. 

This course reviews issues of law that control the way forensic economic analysis must be conducted to be admissible in the courtroom.  Topics included are: Introduction to the
common law; the statutory basis for wrongful death damages; the "make whole" principle versus efficient deterrence and efficient compensation; federal and state court systems; differences by class of litigation; how to determine what law applies to what actions; the legal implications of
"preferred jury instructions;" what to ask for from an attorney before beginning an analysis in a new legal venue; how to find and retrieve legal cases; standards for admissibility of economic expertise (Frye, Daubert, the Federal Rules of Evidence, Joiner, and Kumho);  working with an
attorney on legal matter. 

Economics 446. Statistical Research in Forensic Economic Analysis. 

Review of basic statistical techniques. Data sources and reliability factors. A special problem in forensic economic assessment is that factual information relating to individual tort victims is often very limited, so this course will need to deal extensively with issues relating to inferences that may be developed with very little data. This course will also deal with issues relating to scientific admissibility, paralleling discussion of that topic from Economics 406. Finally, this course will involve having students work with the internet to download data. 

Economics 447. Writing Reports and Papers in Forensic Economics. 

This course will be a professional writing course. Students will be expected to prepare both a damages analysis report suitable for litigation and a paper written in publication format for a professional journal or law review. Because there is a significant need for short papers considering the economic effects of specific laws and court cases in specific legal venues, some these papers will be publishable in specialized journals, legal publications and law reviews. Topics will include: different styles in report development; adequate citation of sources; how to conduct and report a literature review for a professional research paper. 

Economics 448. Labor Economics for Forensic Economists. 

This course will focus on areas of labor economics that are of special importance in forensic economic analysis. Topics will include: Human capital as a recoverable asset in tort law; age-earnings cycles; variations in age-earnings cycles over time; earning capacity versus expected earnings of workers; when does earning capacity end; Becker's theory of the family; family bargaining theory; the theory of discrimination; tests for determining whether discrimination has occurred.

Economics 449. Internship in Forensic Economics.

Internship at law firm, accounting practice with litigation division, or with forensic consulting firm.  Internship activities and products will be largely monitored through the Internet. This is a four hour course and regular reports from intern students at a professional standard of writing will be expected. This will be a four hour course.

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Comments or Questions Contact:
    Thomas R. Ireland (ireland@umsl.edu)
Last Modified: November 19, 2005
Department of Economics
University of Missouri - St.Louis
One University Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63121-4400
(314)516-5351