Subjective life expectancy in the US: correspondence to actuarial estimates by age, sex and race
This study maps the relationship between subjective and actuarial life expectancy in a 1995 national sample of 2037 Americans of ages 18-95. Subjective estimates parallel age-specific actuarial ones based on current age-specific mortality rates. However males expect to live about 3 years longer than the actuarial estimate and blacks expect to live about 6 years longer. The apparent optimism remains after adjusting for socioeconomic status and the signs and symptoms of good health. Contrary to economists' rational-expectations hypothesis, young adults do not adjust their life expectancies upward to account for the favorable trends in mortality rates.
Year of publication: |
1999
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Authors: | Mirowsky, John |
Published in: |
Social Science & Medicine. - Elsevier, ISSN 0277-9536. - Vol. 49.1999, 7, p. 967-979
|
Publisher: |
Elsevier |
Keywords: | Life expectancy Subjective health Sex Race United States |
Saved in:
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