The impact of health behaviors and life quality on gender differences in mortality

Marc Luy and Paola Di Giulio
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Marc Luy: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Paola Di Giulio: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

No WP-2006-035, MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

Abstract: Since gender-specific mortality differences are known a great deal of research has been conducted on this subject. The resulting hypotheses for explaining male excess mortality can be sub-divided into two basic categories: the biological approach (focusing on biological and genetic factors) and the non-biological approach (focusing on behavioral and environmental factors). It has been proven impossible to explain the observed trends in mortality differences between women and men by relying solely on one of the two groups of theories. Recent studies indicate that the majority of the female survival advantage can be attributed to gender behaviors while the impact of biological factors seems to be limited to 1-2 years in life expectancy at birth. The main goal of this paper is to analyze the impact of gender-specific health behaviors and gender differences in life quality using micro level data for Western Germany.

Keywords: Germany; life styles; mortality; sex differentials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2006-035

DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2006-035

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