Global inequality in length of life, 1950–2015

Main author: Jordá, Vanesa
Other authors: Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel
Format: Monographs and Working Papers           
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id eprints-36559
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description This paper provides a broad picture of national, regional and global trends of inequality in length of life over the period 1950–2015. We use data on life tables from World Population Prospects to develop a comprehensive database of a battery of inequality measures for 201 countries at five-year intervals over the period under analysis. We estimate both absolute and relative inequality measures which have the property of being additively decomposable. This property makes the database remarkably flexible because overall inequality can be computed for any group of countries using only the information included in our database. The decomposition analysis reveals that differences in life expectancy between countries account for a very small portion of the observed changes in global inequality in length of life, evolution of which is large driven by within-country variation. Our estimates indicate that inequality in length of life has decreased sharply since 1950, a reduction that can be largely attributed to the substantial progress made in reducing child mortality worldwide. We also observe a degree of heterogeneity in the distributional patters of inequality in length of life across world regions.
format Monographs and Working Papers
author Jordá, Vanesa
author_facet Jordá, Vanesa
Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel
authorStr Jordá, Vanesa
author_letter Jordá, Vanesa
author2 Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel
author2Str Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel
title Global inequality in length of life, 1950–2015
publisher UNU-WIDER Working Paper 2017/192
publishDate 2017
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/36559/