Mortality in Belarus, Lithuania, and Russia: Divergence in Recent Trends and Possible Explanations

La mortalité en Biélorussie, Lituanie et Russie: Divergence dans les Tendances Récentes et Explications Possibles

Pavel Grigoriev (), Vladimir Shkolnikov, Evgueni Andreev, Domantas Jasilionis, Dmitri Jdanov, France Meslé and Jacques Vallin
Additional contact information
Pavel Grigoriev: Rostock Center for the Study of Demographic Change/Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Vladimir Shkolnikov: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Evgueni Andreev: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Domantas Jasilionis: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Dmitri Jdanov: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
France Meslé: Institut National d’études Démographiques (INED)
Jacques Vallin: Institut National d’études Démographiques (INED)

European Journal of Population, 2010, vol. 26, issue 3, No 1, 245-274

Abstract: Abstract Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus, Lithuania, and Russia were quite comparable in terms of their socioeconomic development. Despite some differences in overall mortality levels, the three former Soviet republics were also very close to each other in terms of directions of mortality trends and age- and cause-specific mortality patterns. After 1991, all the three countries experienced substantial political and social transformations, and the challenges associated with the transition from a socialist to a market economy system. The sudden changes brought numerous problems, such as rapid growth in unemployment, falling standards of living, and growing social and income inequalities. These factors contributed to the significant deterioration of the health situation in all the countries, but the size and the nature of the mortality crisis was different in Belarus than it was in Lithuania and Russia. The marked similarities in socioeconomic and mortality trends in the countries up to 1991 contrast with their notable divergence during the subsequent years. The nature and success of market reforms seems to be the most plausible explanation for these differences. Russia and Lithuania have chosen more radical forms of economic and political transformations, which have led to massive privatization campaigns. The reforms were more sustainable and systematic in Lithuania than in Russia. By contrast, Belarus has chosen a gradual and slow transition path. Recent mortality trends in Belarus are explored in detail here, and are contrasted with those observed in Lithuania and Russia. Including a cause-of-death analysis sheds more light on the plausible determinants of the variations in mortality levels between the countries.

Keywords: Belarus; Lithuania; Russia; Mortality trends; Causes of death; Market reforms; Socioeconomic changes; Biélarussie; Lituanie; Russie; Tendances de la mortalité; Causes de décès; Réformes du marché; Changements socio-économiques (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10680-010-9210-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:26:y:2010:i:3:d:10.1007_s10680-010-9210-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10680

DOI: 10.1007/s10680-010-9210-1

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Population is currently edited by Helga A.G. de Valk

More articles in European Journal of Population from Springer, European Association for Population Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().