Replacement-cost valuation of the household production an injured or deceased person can no longer provide: meal preparation, cleaning, home and vehicle maintenance, shopping, child care, and care of other household members. The hours are drawn from national time-use data adjusted to the person's household composition and pre-injury role, and each category is priced at the local wage for the occupation that would replace it, then projected and discounted over the period of loss.
KW Economics prepares household services analysis for plaintiff and defense counsel nationwide; the method is the same whichever side retains the economist.
Household services analysis at KW Economics is directed by Christopher Skerritt, M.Ed., MBA, Chief of Economic Services, who is available to testify to it.
Which household tasks the injured person can no longer perform, and for how long, is a functional question answered from the medical record or by the affiliated vocational practice; the economist's work is the valuation that follows: the hours, the replacement wage for each task, and the present value of the loss. Vocational and functional assessment at the affiliated practice.
How household services analysis applies to the specific demands of each case type: methodology, deliverables, and what counsel should expect.
From national time-use data for a person of the same age, sex, employment status, and household composition, adjusted to the household's own account of who did what before the injury. The report shows the hours by category, such as meal preparation, cleaning, maintenance, shopping, and child care, and states where the household's account and the published data differ.
At the local wage for the occupation that would replace it: a housekeeper for cleaning, a cook for meal preparation, a child care worker for child care, and so on, drawn from published occupational wage data for the household's area. The report states the wage source and date and projects the rates forward with growth before discounting to present value.
The loss is apportioned by category. The medical restrictions and the household's account establish which tasks the person can no longer perform, which they can perform with limits, and which are unaffected, and only the lost or reduced hours are valued. The report shows the apportionment so it can be tested.
It can, and the report checks for it. Attendant care hours in a plan may already cover tasks that would otherwise be counted as lost household services. The valuation reconciles the two so the same hours are not claimed twice, and states which document controls each category.
No state licenses forensic economists. Qualification to testify on household services analysis is decided case by case on education, method, and testimony history; these pages explain what each credential establishes and what it does not.
Request a consultation on Household Services or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.