IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ran/wpaper/wr-497.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Twentieth Century U.S. Racial Inequalities in Mortality Changes in the Average Age of Death and the Variability in the Age of Death for White and non-White Men and Women, 1900-2002

Author

Listed:
  • Margaret M. Weden

Abstract

This paper develops a new theoretical and empirical approach to studying historical trends in social inequalities in mortality. The author describes how within group inequality in mortality (e.g. IQRo) can be used to identify the timing and pace of epidemiological transitions, and she relates differences between population groups in IQRo to theory on social inequalities in mortality. Using data on mortality for U.S. white and non-white men and women over the period 1900-2002 and decomposing the patterns of change in IQRo, she finds that mortality declines have been later, slower, and have involved more irregular age-composition among non-whites than whites. As a result, racial differences in IQRo have dynamically diverged and converged while there has been a century of convergence in eo. These findings show that IQRo provides information about mortality differences that are concealed by eo and they provide insight into the theoretical trends in mortality associated with economic development, diffusion of innovations, institutional changes, and social stratification.

Suggested Citation

  • Margaret M. Weden, 2007. "Twentieth Century U.S. Racial Inequalities in Mortality Changes in the Average Age of Death and the Variability in the Age of Death for White and non-White Men and Women, 1900-2002," Working Papers WR-497, RAND Corporation.
    • Handle: RePEc:ran:wpaper:wr-497
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/working_papers/2007/RAND_WR497.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    2. James R. Carey & Debra S. Judge, 2001. "Life Span Extension in Humans Is Self‐Reinforcing: A General Theory of Longevity," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(3), pages 411-436, September.
    3. Irma T. Elo & Greg L. Drevenstedt, 2004. "Cause-specific contributions to black-white differences in male mortality from 1960 to 1995," Demographic Research Special Collections, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 2(10), pages 255-276.
    4. Armelagos, George J. & Brown, Peter J. & Turner, Bethany, 2005. "Evolutionary, historical and political economic perspectives on health and disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 755-765, August.
    5. Link, B.G. & Phelan, J.C., 2002. "Mckeown and the idea that social conditions are fundamental causes of disease," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(5), pages 730-732.
    6. Linda Berry, 1977. "Age and parity influences on maternal mortality: United States, 1919–1969," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 14(3), pages 297-310, August.
    7. J. Pollard, 1988. "On the decomposition of changes in expectation of life and differentials in life expectancy," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 25(2), pages 265-276, May.
    8. David Cutler & Grant Miller, 2005. "The role of public health improvements in health advances: The twentieth-century United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 42(1), pages 1-22, February.
    9. John Wilmoth & Shiro Horiuchi, 1999. "Rectangularization revisited: Variability of age at death within human populations," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 36(4), pages 475-495, November.
    10. Fogel, Robert William, 2000. "The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226256627, September.
    11. Troesken, Werner, 2002. "The Limits Of Jim Crow: Race And The Provision Of Water And Sewerage Services In American Cities, 1880–1925," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(3), pages 734-772, September.
    12. Mackenbach, Johan P. & Kunst, Anton E., 1997. "Measuring the magnitude of socio-economic inequalities in health: An overview of available measures illustrated with two examples from Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 757-771, March.
    13. 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.
    14. Eduardo Arriaga, 1984. "Measuring and explaining the change in life expectancies," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 21(1), pages 83-96, February.
    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. Helene Økland & Svenn-Erik Mamelund, 2019. "Race and 1918 Influenza Pandemic in the United States: A Review of the Literature," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-18, July.

    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. Vladimir Shkolnikov & Evgeny Andreev & Zhen Zhang & James Oeppen & James Vaupel, 2011. "Losses of Expected Lifetime in the United States and Other Developed Countries: Methods and Empirical Analyses," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(1), pages 211-239, February.
    2. Dmitri A. Jdanov & Vladimir M. Shkolnikov & Alyson A. van Raalte & Evgeny M. Andreev, 2017. "Decomposing Current Mortality Differences Into Initial Differences and Differences in Trends: The Contour Decomposition Method," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(4), pages 1579-1602, August.
    3. Glenn Firebaugh & Francesco Acciai & Aggie Noah & Christopher Prather & Claudia Nau, 2014. "Why Lifespans Are More Variable Among Blacks Than Among Whites in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(6), pages 2025-2045, December.
    4. Suryakant Yadav, 2021. "Progress of Inequality in Age at Death in India: Role of Adult Mortality," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(3), pages 523-550, July.
    5. Florian Bonnet & Hippolyte d'Albis, 2020. "Spatial Inequality in Mortality in France over the Past Two Centuries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 46(1), pages 145-168, March.
    6. Vladimir M. Shkolnikov & Evgeny M. Andreev & Zhen Zhang & James E. Oeppen & James W. Vaupel, 2009. "Losses of expected lifetime in the US and other developed countries: methods and empirical analyses," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-042, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    7. 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.
    8. Alyson Raalte & Hal Caswell, 2013. "Perturbation Analysis of Indices of Lifespan Variability," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1615-1640, October.
    9. Margaret Weden, 2007. "Twentieth Century U.S. Racial Inequalities in Mortality Changes in the Average Age of Death and the Variability in the Age of Death for White and non-White Men and Women, 1900-2002," Working Papers 497, RAND Corporation.
    10. 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.
    11. Gonzaga, Marcos Roberto & Queiroz, Bernardo L & Lima, Everton, 2017. "Compression of mortality: the evolution in the variability in the age of death in Latin America," OSF Preprints pdnfk, Center for Open Science.
    12. Vladimir M. Shkolnikov & Evgeny M. Andreev & Alexander Z. Begun, 2001. "Gini coefficient as a life table function: computation from discrete data, decomposition of differences and empirical examples," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2001-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    13. Jose Manuel Aburto & Jesús-Adrián Alvarez & Francisco Villavicencio & James W. Vaupel, 2019. "The threshold age of the lifetable entropy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(4), pages 83-102.
    14. Margaret M. Weden & Ryan Andrew Brown, 2007. "Historical and Life Course Timing of the Male Mortality Disadvantage in Europe Epidemiologic Transitions, Evolution, and Behavior," Working Papers WR-498, RAND Corporation.
    15. Margaret Weden & Ryan Andrew Brown, 2007. "Historical and Life Course Timing of the Male Mortality Disadvantage in Europe Epidemiologic Transitions, Evolution, and Behavior," Working Papers 498, RAND Corporation.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Karina Acosta-Ordoñez & Julio E. Romero-Prieto, 2017. "Cambios recientes en las principales causas de mortalidad en Colombia," Chapters, in: Jaime Bonet & Karelys Guzmán-Finol & Lucas Wilfried Hahn-De-Castro (ed.), La salud en Colombia: una perspectiva regional, chapter 4, pages 79-119, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    19. Bailey, Roy E. & Hatton, Timothy J. & Inwood, Kris, 2016. "Atmospheric Pollution and Child Health in Late Nineteenth Century Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 10428, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. José Joaquín García-Gómez & Juan Diego Pérez-Cebada, 2020. "A Socio-Environmental History of a Copper Mining Company: Rio-Tinto Company Limited (1874–1930)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mortality and race; health status indicators; life expectancy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ran:wpaper:wr-497. 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: Benson Wong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lpranus.html .

    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.