Mortality Evolution in Italy: The End of Regional Convergence?

Gianni Carboni , University of Sassari
Giambattista Salinari, Università degli Studi di Sassari
Gustavo De Santis, University of Florence
Federico Benassi, Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)

In several European countries, life expectancy has progressed little in the past two decades. In this study, focused on Italy, we investigate whether “austerity” and health regionalization may have contributed to this outcome. We show that the succession of reforms to the Italian health system introduced since the 1990s closely corresponds to discontinuities in the evolution of regional life expectancies, halting or reversing their previous trend towards convergence. This holds for both sigma and beta convergence and for both genders, albeit earlier for females.

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 Presented in Session 65. Flash session Mortality and Longevity