IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v253y2020ics0277953620301830.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequalities in life expectancy: An analysis of 201 countries, 1950–2015

Author

Listed:
  • Liou, Lathan
  • Joe, William
  • Kumar, Abhishek
  • Subramanian, S.V.

Abstract

With global improvements in life expectancy, one important concern is to understand whether there is reduction in inequalities or greater cross-country convergence in expected length of life at various age thresholds. Insights on convergence patterns can help governments and other stakeholders decide upon health investments across age groups. This paper applies a novel econometric approach to test convergence and identify convergent clubs in life expectancy at various age groups for 201 countries/areas between 1950 and 2015. Life expectancy estimates for 201 countries/areas (1950 and 2015) from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) World Population Prospects (2015 Revision) are used for the analysis. We find global convergence in life expectancy at birth, but do not observe grand convergence for any other age groups. In the case of life expectancy at younger ages, most countries are moving in the same direction, but significant cross-country variations and convergence clubs are noted for older adults and elderly. Most of the better performing countries/areas are from Western Europe, Northern Europe and North America, the average performers are from South America, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Africa, Central Africa, and the Caribbean Islands whereas the poor-performing ones are mainly Western Africa, Southern African and Oceania. In addition, we observe increasing between-country variance in life expectancy for older adults and elderly. The analysis reveals increasing global heterogeneity in the survival experience of older adults and the elderly population which has remained a neglected aspect in the discussions on global life expectancy improvements. Data, research and policy focus on life-expectancy at older ages is therefore critical to accelerate survival gains among older adults and elderly, particularly from the developing world.

Suggested Citation

  • Liou, Lathan & Joe, William & Kumar, Abhishek & Subramanian, S.V., 2020. "Inequalities in life expectancy: An analysis of 201 countries, 1950–2015," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:253:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620301830
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112964
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620301830
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112964?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2009. "Economic transition and growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 1153-1185, November.
    2. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2007. "Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(6), pages 1771-1855, November.
    3. Ryan D. Edwards, 2011. "Changes in World Inequality in Length of Life: 1970–2000," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 37(3), pages 499-528, September.
    4. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson, 2007. "Disease and Development: The Effect of Life Expectancy on Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(6), pages 925-985, December.
    5. Leckie, George & Charlton, Chris, 2013. "runmlwin: A Program to Run the MLwiN Multilevel Modeling Software from within Stata," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 52(i11).
    6. Chris Wilson, 2001. "On the Scale of Global Demographic Convergence 1950–2000," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(1), pages 155-171, March.
    7. David Cutler & Angus Deaton & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2006. "The Determinants of Mortality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 97-120, Summer.
    8. James W. Vaupel, 2010. "Biodemography of human ageing," Nature, Nature, vol. 464(7288), pages 536-542, March.
    9. Kerui Du, 2017. "Econometric convergence test and club clustering using Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 17(4), pages 882-900, December.
    10. Roland Rau & Eugeny Soroko & Domantas Jasilionis & James W. Vaupel, 2008. "Continued Reductions in Mortality at Advanced Ages," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 34(4), pages 747-768, December.
    11. Duncan Gillespie & Meredith Trotter & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2014. "Divergence in Age Patterns of Mortality Change Drives International Divergence in Lifespan Inequality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 1003-1017, June.
    12. Jacques Vallin & France Meslé, 2009. "The Segmented Trend Line of Highest Life Expectancies," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 35(1), pages 159-187, March.
    13. Mr. Kenichi Ueda, 2008. "Life Expectancy and Income Convergence in the World: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis," IMF Working Papers 2008/158, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Christopher J. Gerry & Yulia Raskina & Daria Tsyplakova, 2018. "Convergence or Divergence? Life Expectancy Patterns in Post-communist Countries, 1959–2010," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 309-332, November.
    15. Ryan D. Edwards & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2005. "Inequality in Life Spans and a New Perspective on Mortality Convergence Across Industrialized Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 31(4), pages 645-674, December.
    16. John Bongaarts, 2006. "How Long Will We Live?," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 32(4), pages 605-628, December.
    17. Sen, Amartya, 1998. "Mortality as an Indicator of Economic Success and Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 1-25, January.
    18. Richard H. Steckel, 2008. "Biological Measures of the Standard of Living," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(1), pages 129-152, Winter.
    19. Mackenbach, Johan P., 2013. "Political conditions and life expectancy in Europe, 1900–2008," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 134-146.
    20. Michal Engelman & Vladimir Canudas‐Romo & Emily M. Agree, 2010. "The Implications of Increased Survivorship for Mortality Variation in Aging Populations," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(3), pages 511-539, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Shaobin & Ren, Zhoupeng & Liu, Xianglong & Yin, Qian, 2022. "Spatiotemporal trends in life expectancy and impacts of economic growth and air pollution in 134 countries: A Bayesian modeling study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    2. Takai, Aya & Kumar, Akhil & Kim, Rockli & Subramanian, S.V., 2022. "Life expectancies across congressional districts in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    3. Ledesma-Cuenca, Ana & Montañés, Antonio & Simón-Fernández, María Blanca, 2022. "Disparities in premature mortality: Evidence for the OECD countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    4. David Pérez-Mesa & Gustavo A. Marrero & Sara Darias-Curvo, 2020. "Child health inequality and opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 557, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    5. Pérez-Mesa, David & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Darias-Curvo, Sara, 2021. "Child health inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 108801, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ngoudji Tameko, Charlie Yves & Ningaye, Paul, 2023. "New evidence on life expectancy and development: is Sub-Saharan Africa different?," MPRA Paper 117265, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Duncan Gillespie & Meredith Trotter & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2014. "Divergence in Age Patterns of Mortality Change Drives International Divergence in Lifespan Inequality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 1003-1017, June.
    3. Michal Engelman & Hal Caswell & Emily Agree, 2014. "Why do lifespan variability trends for the young and old diverge? A perturbation analysis," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(48), pages 1367-1396.
    4. Hippolyte d'Albis & Loesse Jacques Esso & Héctor Pifarré I Arolas, 2014. "Persistent Differences in Mortality Patterns across Industrialized Countries," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-01061000, HAL.
    5. Pinheiro, Pedro Cisalpino & Queiroz, Bernardo L, 2018. "Regional Disparities in Brazilian Adult Mortality: an analysis using Modal Age at Death (M) and Compression of Mortality (IQR)," OSF Preprints t2ey3, Center for Open Science.
    6. Sulekha Hembram & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2020. "Is India experiencing health convergence? An empirical analysis," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 591-618, November.
    7. 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.
    8. Marie-Pier Bergeron-Boucher & Marcus Ebeling & Vladimir Canudas-Romo, 2015. "Decomposing changes in life expectancy: Compression versus shifting mortality," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(14), pages 391-424.
    9. Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2018. "Well-being Inequality in the Long Run," Working Papers 0131, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    10. Christopher J. Gerry & Yulia Raskina & Daria Tsyplakova, 2018. "Convergence or Divergence? Life Expectancy Patterns in Post-communist Countries, 1959–2010," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 309-332, November.
    11. repec:hal:pseose:hal-01061000 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Alyson van Raalte & Mikko Myrskylä & Pekka Martikainen, 2015. "The role of smoking on mortality compression," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(20), pages 589-620.
    13. Christopoulos, Konstantinos & Eleftheriou, Konstantinos, 2020. "Premature mortality in the US: A convergence study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    14. Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2023. "Inequality Beyond GDP: A Long View," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(3), pages 533-554, September.
    15. Saima Javed & Yu Rong & Babar Nawaz Abbasi, 2024. "Convergence analysis of artificial intelligence research capacity: Are the less developed catching up with the developed ones?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 2172-2192, May.
    16. Casper Worm Hansen & Holger Strulik, 2017. "Life expectancy and education: evidence from the cardiovascular revolution," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 421-450, December.
    17. Cutrini, Eleonora, 2019. "Economic integration, structural change, and uneven development in the European Union," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 102-113.
    18. Sakiru Adebola Solarin, 2018. "Convergence hypothesis in tourism markets and activities in Taiwan," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(8), pages 1037-1044, December.
    19. Diego Aboal & Bibiana Lanzilotta & Martin Pereyra & Maria Paz Queraltó, 2020. "Regional Economic Development and Convergence Clubs in Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo 17902, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).
    20. María A. González-Álvarez & Angelina Lázaro-Alquézar & María Blanca Simón-Fernández, 2020. "Global Trends in Child Obesity: Are Figures Converging?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-20, December.
    21. Vanesa Jordá & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2017. "Global inequality in length of life: 1950–2015," WIDER Working Paper Series 192, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:253:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620301830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.