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Estimating the Causal Impact of Macroeconomic Conditions on Income-Related Mortality

Gerdtham, Ulf-Göran LU orcid ; Heckley, Gawain LU orcid and Lissdaniels, Johannes LU (2020) In Working papers
Abstract
To-date the macroeconomic conditions-mortality literature on income-related inequality in mortality has relied on subgroup analysis, mainly using income as a stratification variable, but this nearly always causes selection bias yielding results that are hard to interpret. To solve this bad control problem, we apply a novel technique based on recentered influence function regression of overall income-related mortality measures, like the commonly used concentration index. We also highlight the importance of: i) measurement of relative versus absolute inequality; ii) measurement of inequality by population-level statistics of inequality (concentration indices) versus subgroup analysis; iii) measurement of short versus long-term income. We... (More)
To-date the macroeconomic conditions-mortality literature on income-related inequality in mortality has relied on subgroup analysis, mainly using income as a stratification variable, but this nearly always causes selection bias yielding results that are hard to interpret. To solve this bad control problem, we apply a novel technique based on recentered influence function regression of overall income-related mortality measures, like the commonly used concentration index. We also highlight the importance of: i) measurement of relative versus absolute inequality; ii) measurement of inequality by population-level statistics of inequality (concentration indices) versus subgroup analysis; iii) measurement of short versus long-term income. We illustrate these issues and our suggested solution using detailed individual-level administrative data from Sweden. Our findings show that there overall is a (insignificant) counter-cyclical impact on mortality and its income-related inequality. During a sub-period of pronounced and significant counter-cyclical mortality we find support for accompanying counter-cyclical income-related inequality, but only when using short-term income. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Mortality, Macroeconomic conditions, Unemployment, Recentered influence function, Inequality, Concentration index, E32, I14
in
Working papers
issue
2020:22
pages
29 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c0321665-3acf-4a39-a2c0-c8249c4c6f07
alternative location
https://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2020_022.htm
date added to LUP
2020-11-16 10:22:40
date last changed
2020-11-27 16:01:17
@misc{c0321665-3acf-4a39-a2c0-c8249c4c6f07,
  abstract     = {{To-date the macroeconomic conditions-mortality literature on income-related inequality in mortality has relied on subgroup analysis, mainly using income as a stratification variable, but this nearly always causes selection bias yielding results that are hard to interpret. To solve this bad control problem, we apply a novel technique based on recentered influence function regression of overall income-related mortality measures, like the commonly used concentration index. We also highlight the importance of: i) measurement of relative versus absolute inequality; ii) measurement of inequality by population-level statistics of inequality (concentration indices) versus subgroup analysis; iii) measurement of short versus long-term income. We illustrate these issues and our suggested solution using detailed individual-level administrative data from Sweden. Our findings show that there overall is a (insignificant) counter-cyclical impact on mortality and its income-related inequality. During a sub-period of pronounced and significant counter-cyclical mortality we find support for accompanying counter-cyclical income-related inequality, but only when using short-term income.}},
  author       = {{Gerdtham, Ulf-Göran and Heckley, Gawain and Lissdaniels, Johannes}},
  keywords     = {{Mortality; Macroeconomic conditions; Unemployment; Recentered influence function; Inequality; Concentration index; E32; I14}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2020:22}},
  series       = {{Working papers}},
  title        = {{Estimating the Causal Impact of Macroeconomic Conditions on Income-Related Mortality}},
  url          = {{https://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2020_022.htm}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}