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The threshold age of the lifetable entropy

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Manuel Aburto

    (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

  • James W. Vaupel

    (Syddansk Universitet)

  • Jesús-Adrián Alvarez

    (Syddansk Universitet)

  • Francisco Villavicencio

    (Universitat de Barcelona)

Abstract

Background: Indicators of relative variation of lifespans are markers of inequality at the population level and of uncertainty at the time of death at the individual level. In particular, the lifetable entropy H represents the elasticity of life expectancy to a change in mortality. However, it is unknown how this measure changes over time and whether a threshold age exists, as it does for other lifespan variation indicators. Results: The time derivative of H can be decomposed into changes in life disparity e† and life expectancy at birth eo. Likewise, changes over time in H are a weighted average of age-specific rates of mortality improvements. These weights reflect the sensitivity of H and show how mortality improvements can increase (or decrease) the relative inequality of lifespans. Further, we prove that in the assumption that mortality is reduced at all ages, H, as well as e†, has a threshold age below which saving lives reduces entropy, whereas improvements above that age increase entropy. Contribution: We give a formal expression for changes of H over time and provide a formal proof of the existence of a unique threshold age that separates reductions and increases in lifespan variation as a result age-specific mortality improvements.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Manuel Aburto & James W. Vaupel & Jesús-Adrián Alvarez & Francisco Villavicencio, 2019. "The threshold age of the lifetable entropy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(4), pages 83-102.
  • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:41:y:2019:i:4
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2019.41.4
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    Cited by:

    1. Henrik Brønnum-Hansen & Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos Espiñeira & Camila Perera & Ingelise Andersen, 2023. "Trends in mortality patterns in two countries with different welfare models: comparisons between Cuba and Denmark 1955–2020," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 1-28, June.
    2. Wen Su & Vladimir Canudas-Romo & Alyson van Raalte & Jose Manuel Aburto, 2024. "Subnational contribution to life expectancy and life span variation changes: Evidence from the United States," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 50(22), pages 583-624.
    3. Aburto, José Manuel & Basellini, Ugofilippo & Baudisch, Annette & Villavicencio, Francisco, 2022. "Drewnowski’s index to measure lifespan variation: Revisiting the Gini coefficient of the life table," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1-10.
    4. Héctor Pifarré i Arolas & José C. Andrade Santacruz & Mikko Myrskylä, 2023. "An overlapping cohorts perspective of lifespan inequality," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-046, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    5. Jos'e Manuel Aburto & Ugofilippo Basellini & Annette Baudisch & Francisco Villavicencio, 2021. "Drewnowski's index to measure lifespan variation: Revisiting the Gini coefficient of the life table," Papers 2111.11256, arXiv.org.
    6. Chiara Micheletti & Francisco Villavicencio, 2024. "On the relationship between life expectancy, modal age at death, and the threshold age of the life table entropy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 51(24), pages 763-788.
    7. Oscar E Fernandez & Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, 2022. "Life span inequality as a function of the moments of the deaths distribution: Connections and insights," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Jacob Martin & Iñaki Permanyer & Jose Manuel Aburto, 2023. "Dynamics of the coefficient of variation of the age at death distribution," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 49(38), pages 1063-1086.
    9. Kashnitsky, Ilya, 2020. "Changing regional inequalities in ageing across Europe," OSF Preprints 6m4kg, Center for Open Science.
    10. Wen Su & Vladimir Canudas-Romo, 2024. "Cross-sectional Average Length of Life Entropy ( $${\mathcal{H}}_{\text{CAL}}$$ H CAL ): International Comparisons and Decompositions," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 40(1), pages 1-23, December.
    11. Aburto, José Manuel & Kristensen, Frederikke Frehr & Sharp, Paul, 2021. "Black-white disparities during an epidemic: Life expectancy and lifespan disparity in the US, 1980–2000," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    12. Jesús-Adrián Álvarez & Malene Kallestrup-Lamb & Søren Kjærgaard, 2020. "Linking retirement age to life expectancy does not lessen the demographic implications of unequal lifespans," CREATES Research Papers 2020-17, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    13. Francisco Goerlich, 2020. "Distributionally adjusted life expectancy as a life table function," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(14), pages 365-400.
    14. Meyer, Patrick & Ponthiere, Gregory, 2020. "Threshold ages for the relation between lifetime entropy and mortality risk," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-7.
    15. Cinzia Di Palo, 2023. "On a closed-form expression and its approximation to Gompertz life disparity," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 49(1), pages 1-12.
    16. Annette Baudisch & Jesús-Adrián Alvarez, 2021. "Born once, die once: Life table relationships for fertility," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(2), pages 49-66.
    17. Serena Vigezzi & Virginia Zarulli & Iñaki Permanyer & Jose Manuel Aburto, 2022. "Divergent trends in lifespan variation during mortality crises," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(11), pages 291-336.
    18. Alvarez, Jesús-Adrián & Kallestrup-Lamb, Malene & Kjærgaard, Søren, 2021. "Linking retirement age to life expectancy does not lessen the demographic implications of unequal lifespans," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 363-375.
    19. Amancio Betzuen Zalbidegoitia & Amaia Jone Betzuen Álvarez, 2021. "Is Longevity Acceleration Sustainable? An Entropy-Based Trial of the Population of Spain vs. Japan," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(15), pages 1-18, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    lifespan variation; pace of aging; mathematical demography; mortality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

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