Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/73502 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Working Papers in Economics and Statistics No. 2010-23
Publisher: 
University of Innsbruck, Department of Public Finance, Innsbruck
Abstract: 
Health is an important dimension of welfare comparisons across individuals, regions or states. In the following paper we focus on the question whether the health status between geographical subunits (local communities) converged/diverged in the time period 1969 - 2004 in Austria. We use age standardized mortality rates as indicators for the health status and analyze the convergence/divergence of overall mortality for (i) the whole population, (ii) females, (iii) males and (iv) the gender gap in overall mortality. Convergence/Divergence is studied by applying different concepts of cross-regional inequality (weighted standard deviation, coefficient of variation, Theil-Coefficient of inequality). Various econometric techniques (weighted OLS, Quantile Regression, Kendall's Rank Concordance) are used to test for absolute and conditional beta-convergence in mortality. We find mixed results for the applied inequality measures. Absolute and conditional beta-convergence are confirmed, both in weighted OLS as well as in Quantile Regression estimations, but we also find strong evidence for the existence of convergence clubs in mortality in Austria.
Subjects: 
mortality
convergence
gender
health status
life expectancy
Austria
JEL: 
I10
I12
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
993.18 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.