Kevin E. Cahill discussed a paper by Larry Spizman and John Kane on the use of race and gender in the calculation of an individual’s expected educational attainment for the purposes of litigation. Dr. Cahill extended the analyses of the authors to show how race-neutral econometric models oftentimes yield results in which underrepresented minorities receive lower damages awards than they otherwise would have received. Dr. Cahill concludes that California’s Senate Bill 41—which became law on January 1st and prohibits the use of race and gender—is “highly flawed and misguided with respect to the calculation of economic damages.”
At the same conference, Dr. Cahill discussed an agenda for future research in forensic economics, based on papers by John O. Ward, Michael L. Brookshire and Frank L. Slesnick, and Steven J. Shapiro.