The Price and Value of Children: The Case of Children's Insurance

Abstract

Qualitative analysis of historical data on the development of children's insurance in the United States between 1875 and the early decades of the 20th century explores the complex relationship between the human and the market values of children, specifically the emergence of the economically "worthless" but emotionally "priceless" child. This paper focuses on the legislative struggle between child insurers and child savers who opposed the insuring of children. I whos that although monetary compensation for the death of a child was initially justified by the pecuniary loss for the parents, the final success of the insurance industry was based on more than economic rationality. It made its appeal primarily as burial insurance for poor children. This is a measure of the emerging "sacralization" of children's lives.

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