Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/115048 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
NRN Working Paper, NRN: The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State No. 1006
Publisher: 
Johannes Kepler University Linz, NRN - The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Linz
Abstract: 
Gender inequalities in mortality/life expectancy have been a major area of research in the social sciences since the 1970s. However, the questions posed and the research strategies used are still in a state of flux. In the present paper we shed some light on two related questions: (i) Which socioeconomic variables determine the gender gap in mortality? (ii) Are male and female mortality rates determined by different socioeconomic factors and in different shapes? We use aggregated data from Austria both at the community and district level covering the time period 1969 - 2004. Our two-level empirical design combined with a panel structure at the districts level reveals additional evidence on these questions compared to previous studies at the regional level. By using weighted regression analysis (panel fixed effects, pooled and cross section) we find that the gender gap is negatively associated with higher average net income, a higher educational level, a higher share of immigrants and better familial integration. In general, males are more sensitive with respect to social and economic conditions compared to females, leading to a narrowing gap in mortality when living conditions improve. These results are also confirmed by our Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition.
Subjects: 
mortality
gender mortality gap
life expectancy
Austria
JEL: 
I12
I18
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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