Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13184
Authors: Radim Bohacek; Jesus Bueren; Laura Crespo; Pedro Mira; Josep Pijoanmas
Abstract: We use harmonized household panel data from 10 European countries (SHARE), the US (HRS), and England (ELSA) to provide novel and comparable measurements of education and gender differences in life expectancy, years in disability, and the underlying multi-state life tables. Common across countries we find substantial interactions between socio-economic status and gender: (a) the education advantage in life expectancy is larger for males, while the education advantage in disability years is larger for females; and relatedly (b) the female advantage in life expectancy and the female disadvantage in disability years are both greatly reduced with education. These interactions happen because the education advantage is relatively more important in health transitions than in conditional survival among females, whereas the converse is true among males. Looking at the differences across countries, inequalities are largest in Eastern Europe and lowest in Scandinavia, while the US stands out as the most unequal across education groups in terms of health transitions and disability-free life expectancy. Finally, we find that countries with higher public health spending have smaller education advantage in conditional survival, the same advantage in health transitions, and smaller gradients in life expectancy.
Keywords: life expectancy; healthy life expectancy; education gradient; gender gap
JEL Codes: I14; I24; J14; J16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Higher education (I23) | Increased life expectancy for males (J17) |
| Higher education (I23) | Increased life expectancy for females (J17) |
| Higher education (I23) | Reduced disability years for females (J14) |
| Increased education (I29) | Diminished female advantage in life expectancy (J17) |
| Increased education (I29) | Diminished female disadvantage in disability years (J14) |
| Education advantage in health transitions (I14) | Increased life expectancy (J17) |
| Education advantage in conditional survival (C41) | Increased life expectancy for males (J17) |