Surviving the Titanic Disaster: Economic, Natural and Social Determinants

Bruno Frey, David A. Savage and Benno Torgler

No 2551, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: The sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 took the lives of 68 percent of the people aboard. Who survived? It was women and children who had a higher probability of being saved, not men. Likewise, people traveling in first class had a better chance of survival than those in second and third class. British passengers were more likely to perish than members of other nations. This extreme event represents a rare case of a well-documented life and death situation where social norms were enforced. This paper shows that economic analysis can account for human behavior in such situations.

Keywords: decision under pressure; tragic events and disasters; survival; quasi-natural experiment; altruism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 D64 D71 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Surviving the Titantic Disaster: Economic, Natural and Social Determinants (2009)
Working Paper: Surviving the Titanic Disaster: Economic, Natural and Social Determinants (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2551

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