Surviving the Titanic Disaster: Economic, Natural and Social Determinants
CESifo, Munich, 2009
CESifo Working Paper No. 2551
![](https://cesifo.org/DocImg/cesifo1_wp2551.jpg?c=1689236902)
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.
Public Choice