Your money or your wife?

Would you risk your life for your spouse? If so, how much would that cost you (or your estate)?  For your date?

Beylin & Malani have data!: Finding Love in the Wreckage: Estimating Spousal Altruism with Data on Fatal Car Accidents:

This paper estimates the degree of altruism among spouses by examining how often the driver of a car sacrifices his or her own self in a car crash in order to save a spouse. Holding constant the magnitude of a collision, a driver can maneuver the car to distribute the risk from collision between the driver and a passenger. We quantify spousal altruism by the degree to which drivers riding with their spouse redistribute the risk from a fatal accident to themselves - as measured by ex post mortality - as compared to drivers not traveling with their spouse. We find that drivers with their spouses are roughly 1.21 times more likely to sacrifice themselves. Assuming a $10 million value of life, this implies a willingness to accept a $2,100,000 loss to avoid the death of a spouse.

I dunno. Some things I'd like to know:  Why did the accident happen in the first place? With your date, you're more likely to be distracted, if you know what I mean. Is your life (or your passenger's life) worth more if you're married?  What happens if the driver is married, but the injured passenger is not his or her spouse? 

Comments

[Ilya Beylin]

>> With your date, you're more likely to be distracted, if you know what I mean.

How long have you been married?

[Fat Man]

Why are men's lives shorter than the lives of their wives?

Because the men want to die.