Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149655 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
cege Discussion Papers No. 301
Publisher: 
University of Göttingen, Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research (cege), Göttingen
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.
Subjects: 
health
aging
health deficit index
Europe
gender differences
compensation law
human life span
JEL: 
I10
I19
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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