Category: death/funeral

The Economics of Death part 3 – The Funeral Industry in Australia At any one time the funeral industry in Australia has about twenty-six million potential customers, all of which will, at some time, will become active customers. However, unlike other industries,  the industry in aggregate cannot advertise or invest to actively increase demand, with the exception of  promoting  pre-paid funerals. Instead, it accepts the deathrate as exogenous and concentrates on internal competition of the existing market. (Figure generated by

The Economics of Death Part 2- Death Duties   Against a backdrop of rising income and wealth inequality across the world support for the increased use of death duties or their  re-introduction is growing, witness recent proposals by. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves (Could Labour impose a “double death tax” of more than 50%?| Money Week.) In the past  I have strongly supported a re-introduction of  inheritance tax, a nicer name for death duties (House prices and demographics make death duties