Role of income mobility for the measurement of inequality in life expectancy

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Abstract
Significance Statement: People in the bottom of the income distribution live shorter lives than those in the top. This is an important dimension of inequality in society. We demonstrate how forces of income mobility are important for conclusions about inequality in life expectancy. Some people escape poverty, and many people at the top of the distribution only have high incomes temporarily. Those moving out of an income class have very different mortality patterns than those staying. We provide a method that incorporates income mobility in calculations of life-expectancy inequality. The good news is that the degree of inequality in life expectancy is only half as big once accounting for income mobility. The bad news is that inequality continues to rise.
Funding Information
  • Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF134)
  • Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF17OC0026542)

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