How we fall apart: Similarities of human aging in 10 European countries

Ana Lucia Abeliansky and Holger Strulik

No 301, University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics from University of Goettingen, Department of Economics

Abstract: We analyze human aging, understood as health deficit accumulation, for a panel of European individuals. For that purpose, we use four waves of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE dataset) and construct a health deficit index. Results from log-linear regressions suggest that, on average, elderly European men and women develop about 2.5 percent more health deficits from one birthday to the next. In non-linear regression (akin to the Gompertz-Makeham model), however, we find much greater rates of aging and large differences between men and women as well as between countries. Interestingly, these differences follow a particular regularity (akin to the compensation effect of mortality). They suggest an age at which average health deficits converge for men and women and across countries.

Keywords: health; aging; health deficit index; Europe; gender differences; compensation law; human life span (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: How We Fall Apart: Similarities of Human Aging in 10 European Countries (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:cegedp:301

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