TY - JOUR
T1 - Inequality in mortality decreased among the young while increasing for older adults, 1990-2010
AU - Currie, J.
AU - Schwandt, H.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank M. Barbieri, A. Case, A. Deaton, J. Goldstein, I. Kuziemko, R. Lee, and K. Wachter, as well as seminar participants at Berkeley, the Chicago Federal Reserve, Fundacao Getulio Vargas Sao Paulo, Bonn University, University of Munich, Princeton University, ETH Zurich, and the University of Zurich for comments. Supported by Princeton Center for Translational Research on Aging grant 2P30AG024928. Data and code are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/C2VYNM.
PY - 2016/5/6
Y1 - 2016/5/6
N2 - Many recent studies point to increasing inequality in mortality in the United States over the past 20 years. These studies often use mortality rates in middle and old age. We used poverty level rankings of groups of U.S. counties as a basis for analyzing inequality in mortality for all age groups in 1990, 2000, and 2010. Consistent with previous studies, we found increasing inequality in mortality at older ages. For children and young adults below age 20, however, we found strong mortality improvements that were most pronounced in poorer counties, implying a strong decrease in mortality inequality. These younger cohorts will form the future adult U.S. population, so this research suggests that inequality in old-age mortality is likely to decline.
AB - Many recent studies point to increasing inequality in mortality in the United States over the past 20 years. These studies often use mortality rates in middle and old age. We used poverty level rankings of groups of U.S. counties as a basis for analyzing inequality in mortality for all age groups in 1990, 2000, and 2010. Consistent with previous studies, we found increasing inequality in mortality at older ages. For children and young adults below age 20, however, we found strong mortality improvements that were most pronounced in poorer counties, implying a strong decrease in mortality inequality. These younger cohorts will form the future adult U.S. population, so this research suggests that inequality in old-age mortality is likely to decline.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.aaf1437
DO - 10.1126/science.aaf1437
M3 - Article
C2 - 27103667
AN - SCOPUS:84964497530
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 352
SP - 708
EP - 712
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6286
ER -