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Mortality tempo-adjustment: Theoretical considerations and an empirical application

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Book cover How Long Do We Live?

Part of the book series: Demographic Research Monographs ((DEMOGRAPHIC))

Abstract

The number of scholars following the tempo approach in fertility continues to grow, whereas tempo-adjustment in mortality generally still is rejected. This rejection is irrational in principle, as the basic idea behind the tempo approach is independent of the kind of demographic event. Providing the first empirical application to a substantial problem, this chapter shows that mortality tempo-adjustment can paint a different picture of current mortality conditions compared to conventional life expectancy. An application of the Bongaarts and Feeney method to the analysis of mortality differences between western and eastern Germany shows that the eastern German disadvantages still are considerably higher and that the mortality gap between the two entities began to narrow some years later than trends in conventional life expectancy suggest. Thus, the picture drawn by tempo-adjusted life expectancy fits the expected trends of changing mortality and also the self-reported health conditions of eastern and western Germans better than that painted by conventional life expectancy.

Great part of this chapter is reprinted from “Mortality tempo-adjustment: An empirical application” by Marc Luy, Demographic Research Vol. 15, 2006. c ©2006 Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, reprinted with permission

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Sociology and Demography, University of Rostock, Ulmenstrasse 69, 18057, Rostock, Germany

    Marc Luy

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Statistics, Mathematics and Sociology “W. Pareto”, University of Messina, Via Tommaso Cannizzaro 278, 98100, Messina, Italy

    Elisabetta Barbi

  2. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Konrad-Zuse-Straße 1, 18057, Rostock, Germany

    James W. Vaupel

  3. Population Council, 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, NY, 10017, USA

    John Bongaarts

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Luy, M. (2008). Mortality tempo-adjustment: Theoretical considerations and an empirical application. In: Barbi, E., Vaupel, J.W., Bongaarts, J. (eds) How Long Do We Live?. Demographic Research Monographs. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78520-0_11

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