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Mortality Convergence Across High-Income Countries: An Econometric Approach

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This work is devoted to the study of the variations of mortality patterns across a sample of high-income countries since 1960. We study changes in age-at-death distributions through two indicators, life expectancy and Gini coefficient, by applying econometric tools commonly used in the economic growth literature to assess the existence of convergence across the countries in our sample. We contribute to the ongoing debate over the existence of convergence amongst high-income countries in adult mortality by offering two main empirical regularities. First, our results show that the convergence hypothesis is rejected when we consider the entire sample of industrialized countries. Second, we provide evidence of convergence in both the life expectancy and Gini coefficient among a subset of countries and for some subperiods. This constitutes preliminary evidence against the convergence to a common age-at-death stationary distribution but of the existence of convergence clubs

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  • Hippolyte d'Albis & Loesse Jacques Esso & Héctor Pifarré i Arolas, 2012. "Mortality Convergence Across High-Income Countries: An Econometric Approach," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 12076, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    • Handle: RePEc:mse:cesdoc:12076
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    9. Nan Li & Ronald Lee, 2005. "Coherent mortality forecasts for a group of populations: An extension of the lee-carter method," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 42(3), pages 575-594, August.
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    11. Ryan Edwards, 2013. "The cost of uncertain life span," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 1485-1522, October.
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    2. Laia Maynou Pujolras, 2013. "Health convergence analysis of the EU regions: 1995 and 2009," ERSA conference papers ersa13p88, European Regional Science Association.
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    5. Cavalieri, Marina & Ferrante, Livio, 2020. "Convergence, decentralization and spatial effects: An analysis of Italian regional health outcomes," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 164-173.

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    Age-at-death distributions; convergence;

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