The Impact of Medical Progress on the Increasing Inequality in Life Expectancy

Miguel Sanchez-Romero , Vienna Institute of Demography
Manuel Marsicano, Vienna Institute of Demography
Michael Kuhn, Vienna Institute of Demography

We present a novel life-cycle model, grounded in demographic principles, to examine the influence of medical technological progress on the rise in life expectancy and income among different socioeconomic groups. Our preliminary findings indicate that the expanding disparity in life expectancy between income groups, as well as the growing income inequality among educational groups, can be attributed to the medical technological advancements that emerged with the cardiovascular revolution in the 1970s.

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 Presented in Session 35. Social Inequalities in Mortality