Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union

Elizabeth Brainerd and David M. Cutler ()

No 4900, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Male life expectancy at birth fell by over six years in Russia between 1989 and 1994. Many other countries of the former Soviet Union saw similar declines, and female life expectancy fell as well. Using cross-country and Russian household survey data, we assess six possible explanations for this upsurge in mortality. Most find little support in the data: the deterioration of the health care system, changes in diet and obesity, and material deprivation fail to explain the increase in mortality rates. The two factors that do appear to be important are alcohol consumption, especially as it relates to external causes of death (homicide, suicide, and accidents) and stress associated with a poor outlook for the future. However, a large residual remains to be explained.

Keywords: eastern europe; health; mortality; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J10 P36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv and nep-tra
Date: 2005-02
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP4900.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union (2005)
Working Paper: Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union (2005)
Working Paper: Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union (2004)
Journal Article: Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union (2005)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4900

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP4900.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().