Exploring Shifting Mortality and Gender Differences in Variability of Age at Death in France: A Cause-of-Death Analysis

Sarah Zureick, University of California, Berkeley

The recent wane in mortality compression indicated by stable trends in variability of age at death has been depicted as the dawning of new era of mortality change: the shifting mortality era. In this paper, I examine two issues regarding the transition to shifting mortality that have yet to be fully resolved. First, how can trends in variability of age at death remain stable even in the face of possible changes in cause-of-death composition? Secondly, why have trends in variability of age at death for different groups stabilized at different levels of variability rather than at a similar (possibly biological) level? Using a historical cause-of-death series from France and decomposition analysis, I pursue answers to these questions through examination of both sex-specific trends in variability of age at death and the evolution of the gap in variability of age at death between the sexes.