Surviving the Titanic Disaster: Economic, Natural and Social Determinants

Bruno Frey, David A. Savage and Benno Torgler

CREMA Working Paper Series from Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA)

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: 2009-01
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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:cra:wpaper:2009-03

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