MPIDR Working Paper

The ages of extremal impact on life disparity caused by averting deaths

Wagner, P.
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2010-016, 16 pages.
Rostock, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (February 2010)
Open Access

Abstract

This paper is concerned with sensitivity analysis of life disparity with respect to changes in mortality rates. Recently Zhang and Vaupel introduced a ”threshold age”, such that averting deaths before that age reduces disparity, while averting deaths after that age increases disparity. We provide a refinement to this result by characterizing the ages at which averting deaths has an extremal impact on life disparity. A procedure is given for approaching the threshold age numerically. The results are illustrated using data for the female populations of Denmark, the US, Japan and France in 2005. [Keywords: life disparity, sensitivity analysis, mortality changes, threshold age]
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.