Abstract
This study proposes a new decomposition method that permits a difference in an aggregate measure at a final time point to be split into additive components corresponding to the initial differences in the event rates of the measure and differences in trends in these underlying event rates. For instance, when studying divergence in life expectancy, this method allows researchers to more easily contrast age-specific mortality trends between populations by controlling for initial age-specific mortality differences. Two approaches are assessed: (1) an additive change method that uses logic similar to cause-of-death decomposition, and (2) a contour decomposition method that extends the stepwise replacement algorithm along an age-period demographic contour. The two approaches produce similar results, but the contour method is more widely applicable. We provide a full description of the contour replacement method and examples of its application to life expectancy and lifetime disparity differences between the United States and England and Wales in the period 1980–2010.
Highlights
IntroductionThe mean length of life and the lifetime disparity (a measure of variation in ages at death known as lifetime losses or e†) in the United States were the compared with corresponding quantities in other advanced countries (Shkolnikov et al 2011)
In a prior study, the mean length of life and the lifetime disparity in the United States were the compared with corresponding quantities in other advanced countries (Shkolnikov et al 2011)
Conventional decomposition analysis showed that the life expectancy and the lifetime disparity differences between England and Wales and the United States in the early 2000s were determined by higher American mortality at infant, young adult, and midlife ages, combined with lower mortality at old ages
Summary
The mean length of life and the lifetime disparity (a measure of variation in ages at death known as lifetime losses or e†) in the United States were the compared with corresponding quantities in other advanced countries (Shkolnikov et al 2011). Conventional decomposition analysis showed that the life expectancy and the lifetime disparity differences between England and Wales and the United States in the early 2000s were determined by higher American mortality at infant, young adult, and midlife ages, combined with lower mortality at old ages. In addition to this decomposition outcome, one may be interested in determining the extent to which the intercountry difference of today is a legacy of past age-specific differences and the extent to which it is a result of differences in age-specific mortality trends
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