We detail a technique for estimating the UV extinction and luminosity of UV selected galaxies using UV quantities alone. The technique is based on a tight correlation between the ratios of far infrared (FIR) to UV flux ratios and UV color for a sample of local starbursts. A simple empirical fit to this correlation can be used to estimate UV extinction as a function of color. This method is applied to a sample of Lyman-break systems selected from the HDF and having $z approx 3$. The resultant UV emissivity is at least nine times higher than the original Madau et al. (1996) estimate. This technique can be readily applied to other rest-frame UV surveys.
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