The Weaker Sex? Vulnerable Men, Resilient Women, and Variations in Sex Differences in Mortality since 1900

Abstract

We are very grateful to Yong CAI for sharing with us his micro data on county-specific S70 and GDP per capita derived from China's 2000 census data. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

The marriage gap: Optimal aging and death in partnerships

“…This finding is particularly interesting when considering the results by Schünemann et al (2017b). In that paper we replicate the empirically observed fact found by Cullen et al (2015) that the gender gap in longevity closes with rising income. Intuitively, gender-specific differences in preference parameters (risk aversion, utility weight on health) do matter less with higher income since the slopes of the utility functions U (c) become more similar between men and women (in the limit, utility approaches infinity irrespective of gender).…”

Economic Conditions and Mortality: Evidence from 200 Years of Data

“…Previous research and our descriptive statistics show that compared to men women's life expectancy has increased substantially more (Cullen et al, 2015), and mortality has fallen much more at younger ages (Cutler et al, 2006). Next we investigate if economic factors have differential effects by age and gender.…”

“…These findings are consistent with two explanations. One is that women are "sturdier" (have a larger initial health stock), consistent with higher mortality of men than women at almost every age in now-developed countries (Cullen et al, 2015). Another is that economic conditions in adolescence are larger predictors of male lifetime incomes, because that is when they enter the labor market, whereas women's lifetime resources are more tied to their husbands' incomes.…”

Family Disadvantage and the Gender Gap in Behavioral and Educational Outcomes

“…find that improvements in in utero nutrition have a larger positive impact on economic self-sufficiency (an omnibus skills and earnings measure) and overall good health among exposed girls than boys, while impacts for the prevalence of metabolic syndrome show slightly greater benefits for exposed boys than girls. In a developing country context,Maccini and Yang (2009) examine the effect of weather shocks around the time of birth on Indonesian women and men, finding positive effects on health, height, schooling, and household wealth in adulthood among women but not men.Field et al (2009) find that prenatal iodine supplementation during the first trimester increased completed schooling by as much as half a year, with generally stronger effects for girls than boys Cullen et al (2015). review a large body of U.S., international, and time series data on the male/female post-natal mortality gap.…”