TY - RPRT T1 - Evidence of Increasing Differenctial Mortality: A Comparison of the HRS and SIPP Y1 - 2015 A1 - Barry Bosworth A1 - Zhang, Kan KW - Demographics KW - Expectations AB - This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to explore the extent of a widening in life expectancies by socioeconomic status (SES) for older persons. We construct four alternative measures of SES, using educational attainment, average (career) earnings in the prime working ages of 41-50, wealth, and occupational classifications. PB - CRR WP 2015-13, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College U4 - life expectancy/socioeconomic status ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Evidence of Increasing Differential Mortality: A Comparison of the HRS and SIPP Y1 - 2015 A1 - Barry Bosworth A1 - Zhang, Kan KW - Demographics KW - Health Conditions and Status KW - Public Policy AB - This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to explore the extent of a widening in life expectancies by socioeconomic status (SES) for older persons. We construct four alternative measures of SES, using educational attainment, average (career) earnings in the prime working ages of 41-50, wealth, and occupational classifications. The paper finds that: There is strong statistical evidence in both the SIPP and HRS of a growing inequality of mortality risk by SES across birth cohorts from 1910 to 1961. Growing inequality in mortality risk is evident using all four indicators of SES, but it is strongest for the measures based on career earnings and educational attainment. The secular changes in differential mortality are very large, but their influence on the length of time for which people receive benefits has been dampened by legal restrictions on early retirement for low-SES individuals and by voluntary postponement of retirement at the top of the distribution. Self-reported health status is a highly significant predictor of mortality risk, but its inclusion in the statistical models has only a marginal effect on the evidence of differential mortality operating through the various SES indicators. The combination of survey measures of the various SES indicators and the administrative records covering earnings, death records, and OASDI benefits provides a particularly large and rich data set for the analysis of mortality experience and its implications for the distribution of benefits. The policy implications of the findings are: Indexing the retirement age to increases in average life expectancy to stabilize OASDI finances may have substantial unintended distributional consequences, because most mortality gains have been concentrated among workers with relatively high SES. PB - Boston College U4 - Socioeconomic Differences/Socioeconomic Status/mortality risk/mortality risk/Survey of Income and Program Participation/Inequalities ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Sources of Increasing Differential Mortality Among the Aged by Socioeconomic Status Y1 - 2015 A1 - Barry Bosworth A1 - Gary T. Burtless A1 - Zhang, Kan KW - Demographics KW - Expectations KW - Health Conditions and Status KW - Methodology AB - This paper uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to explore the extent and causes of widening differences in life expectancy by socioeconomic status (SES) for older persons. We construct alternative measures of SES using educational attainment and average (career) earnings in the prime working ages of 41-50. We also use information on causes of death, health status and various behavioral indicators (smoking, drinking, and obesity) that are believed to be predictors of premature death in an effort to explain the causes of the growing disparities in life expectancy between people of high and low SES. The paper finds that: There is strong statistical evidence in the HRS of a growing inequality of mortality risk by SES among more recent birth cohorts compared with cohorts born before 1930. Both educational attainment and career earnings as constructed from Social Security records are equally useful indicators of SES, although the distinction in mortality risk by education is greatest for those with and without a college degree. There has been a significant decline in the risk of dying from cancer or heart conditions for older Americans in the top half of the income distribution, but we find no such reduction of mortality risk in the bottom half of the distribution. The inclusion of the behavioral variables and health status result in substantial improvement in the predictions of mortality, but they do not identify the sources of the increase in differential mortality. The policy implications of the findings are: Indexing the retirement age to increases in average life expectancy to stabilize OASDI finances may have unintended distributional consequences, because most mortality gains have been concentrated among workers in the top half of the earnings distribution. The fact that we cannot identify the sources of the increase in differential mortality contributes to uncertainty about the distributional effects of increases in the retirement age in future years. PB - Boston College U4 - socioeconomic Status/Socioeconomic Differences/life Expectancy/mortality risk/mortality risk/ADMINISTRATIVE DATA/educational attainment ER -