International Cause-Specific Mortality Rates: New Insights from a Cointegration Analysis

What is it about?

This paper is about getting a better understanding of cause-specific mortality rates and their links. By using some specific econometrics techniques, a relationship between the five main causes of death is found. This relationship is highlighted in five major countries (USA, Japan, France, England & Wales and Australia). Besides, a first link is drawn between these relationships and biological theory on aging.

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Why is it important?

Our results identify for the first time similarities between countries and genders that are consistent with past studies on the aging processes by biologists and demographers. This link that exists between the relationships we found and the biological process of ageing is a key element for: 1) modeling dependences between cause-specific mortality rates; 2) getting a better understanding of the biological process of ageing. It thus paves the way for important future studies in this two areas of research.