German unification and the plasticity of mortality at older ages

Rembrandt D. Scholz and Heiner Maier
Additional contact information
Rembrandt D. Scholz: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Heiner Maier: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

No WP-2003-031, MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

Abstract: German unification can be seen as a natural experiment that allows us to study the health effects of political and economic transition. This study examined old-age survival following German unification in cohorts born in 1895, 1900, 1905 and 1910. People born in these years were in their 80s and 90s at the time of unification in 1990. Before unification, mortality in these cohorts was considerably higher in East Germany than in the West. Following unification, mortality in the East declined toward prevailing levels in the West, particularly among women. This indicates that even the very-old East Germans were able to profit from the medical, social, and economic improvements associated with unification. Study results support the view that old-age mortality is plastic and amenable to intervention, and they attest to the importance of late-life events.

Keywords: Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2003-031.pdf (application/pdf)

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:dem:wpaper:wp-2003-031

DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2003-031

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Wilhelm ().