Economists believe that the value of life increases as life expectancy increases. While this is generally true, a paper by Jena, Mulligan, Philipson, and Eric Sun (2008) shows that while people value living for a long time, the value this longer life expectancy more when their friends and family also live longer. In the authors own words:
“Put simply, living with others who live 78 years is different than living with others who live only 48 years, so that valuing the extra 30 years of life is not simply a matter of valuing the extra years a single individual lives”
Economists have figured out what Tuck Everlasting had shown be to true many years prior.