Lifetime costs and compensation for injuries

Little is known about how well individuals are compensated for injuries. Th is study uses data from a 1989 survey to estimate both the lifetime costs a nd compensation for injuries. Our findings show that about 55% of the cost is compensated by public ol private programs. Compensation rates are lower for disabling injuries and those of long duration. The results also suggest that compensation system reforms that would place stricter limits on maxim um compensation might not be a distributionally fail solution. The reasons are that costs are highly skewed, and the share of costs recovered by compe nsation programs is currently lowest for injuries that are long term, disab ling, and the most expensive.