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Outsurvival as a measure of the inequality of lifespans between two populations

Author

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  • Vaupel, James W
  • Bergeron-Boucher, Marie-Pier
  • Kashnitsky, Ilya

    (Statistics Denmark)

Abstract

Background: Inequality in lifespans between two populations, e.g., males and females or people with low and high SES, is a focus of demographic, economic and sociological research and of public policy analysis. Inequality is usually measured by differences in life expectancy. Objective: To devise a cogent measure of how much distributions of lifespans differ between two populations. Results: We propose an outsurvival statistic, φ, that measures the probability that an individual from a population with low life expectancy will live longer than an individual from a population with high life expectancy. This statistic can also be interpreted as an underdog probability—the chance that a random value from a distribution with a low mean will exceed a random value from a distribution with a higher mean. Contribution: Our outsurvival probability complements life expectancy to provide a more nuanced view of the inequality of lifespans between two populations. Our similar underdog probability provides a perspective on the more general question of how different two distributions are.

Suggested Citation

  • Vaupel, James W & Bergeron-Boucher, Marie-Pier & Kashnitsky, Ilya, 2020. "Outsurvival as a measure of the inequality of lifespans between two populations," SocArXiv gsdkx_v1, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:gsdkx_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/gsdkx_v1
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