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Mortality, Income, and Income Inequality Over Time in Britain and the United States

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Angus Deaton
Christina Paxson

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Abstract

We investigate age-specific mortality in Britain and the United States since 1950. Neither trends in income nor in income inequality provide plausible explanations. Britain and the US had different patterns of income growth but similar patterns of mortality decline. Patterns of income inequality were similar in both countries, but adult and elderly mortality rates declined most rapidly during the period when inequality increased. Changes in the rate of mortality decline in the US led changes in Britain by about four years, most notably for infant and older adult mortality where there have been significant technical improvements in treatment. British mortality is lower, but the schedules cross at around age 65. This pattern was established before Medicare, and most likely comes from rationing by age in Britain. Merged income, income inequality, and mortality data on an age/year (or cohort/year) basis show no evidence that income has any effect on mortality in Britain. Education is protective, but less so than in the US. Understanding the effect of income on mortality presents many puzzles, between countries, and between analyses at different levels of aggregation. Our results suggest an important role for medical technology in determining the rate of mortality decline since 1950.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8534.

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Date of creation: Oct 2001
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8534

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I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Orazio P. Attanasio & Carl Emmerson, 2003. "Mortality, Health Status, and Wealth," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 821-850, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Richard Blundell & Ian Preston, 1997. "Consumption, inequality and income uncertainty," IFS Working Papers W97/15, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. David M. Cutler & Adriana Lleras-Muney & Tom Vogl, 2008. "Socioeconomic Status and Health: Dimensions and Mechanisms," NBER Working Papers 14333, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Sonia Bhalotra, 2008. "Childhood Mortality and Economic Growth," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 08/188, Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Andreea Balan-Cohen, 2008. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? The Impact of the Old Age Assistance Program on Elderly Mortality in the United States," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0719, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
  4. Angus Deaton, 2004. "Health in an Age of Globalization," NBER Working Papers 10669, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Irena Dushi & Leora Friedberg & Anthony Webb, 2006. "The Impact of Aggregate Mortality Risk on Defined Benefit Pension Plans," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2006-21, Center for Retirement Research, revised Nov 2006. [Downloadable!]
  6. Leigh, Andrew & Jencks, Christopher, 2006. "Inequality and Mortality: Long-Run Evidence from a Panel of Countries," Working Paper Series rwp06-032, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Jonathan Meer & Douglas L. Miller & Harvey S. Rosen, 2003. "Exploring the Health-Wealth Nexus," NBER Working Papers 9554, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Arild Aakvik, 2004. "The Relationship Between Economic Conditions, Access to Health Care, and Health Outcomes," Econometric Society 2004 Australasian Meetings 34, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  9. George Atsalakis & Dimitrios Nezis & George Matalliotakis & Camelia Ioana Ucenic & Christos Skiadas, 2007. "Forecasting Mortality Rate Using a Neural Network with Fuzzy Inference System," Working Papers 0806, University of Crete, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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