Mortality Effects of Economic Fluctuations in the Selected Eurozone Countries

Abstract

Socio-economic status is commonly conceptualised as the social standing or well-being of an individual or society. Higher socio-economic status has long been identified as a contributing factor for mortality improvement. This paper studies the impact of macroeconomic fluctuations (having GDP as a proxy) on mortality for nine most populous Eurozone countries. Based on the statistical analysis between the time-dependent indicator of the Lee and Carter (1992) model and GDP, and adaptation of the good features of the O'Hare and Li (2012) model, a new mortality model including this additional economic-related factor is proposed. Results for male and female from ages between 0-89, and similar for unisex data are provided. This new model shows a better fitting, and more plausible forecasts among a significant number of Eurozone countries. An in-depth analysis of our findings is provided to give a better understanding of the relationship between mortality and GDP fluctuations.