Describing Mortality Differentials from the Perspective of Various Effects on Life Expectancy and Life Disparity Using Decomposition Methods: The Case of Czechia

Abstract

The growth in life expectancy has accelerated since the 1990s in Czechia, which preceded a long period of stagnation or even a decrease during the communist era from the 1960s. This article aims to evaluate differences in mortality in terms of the impact of various effects on life expectancy and life disparity before and after the Velvet Revolution in Czechia. Three indicators were considered – life expectancy at birth, temporary life expectancy between ages 0 and 65, and the life disparity measure e-dagger (e†). In the article, we followed the decomposition method according to Arriaga (1984). Based on this method, the effect of mortality was further decomposed into an exclusive effect reflecting improved or worsened mortality in the given age group and into an interaction effect reflecting changes in mortality as a whole. Based on the results, it was found that the indirect effect prevailed in the case of life expectancy, while the direct effect dominated in the life disparity measure. Furthermore, we focused on the differences in life expectancy at birth between the sexes and between the two countries forming parts of the former Czechoslovakia – Czechia and Slovakia. For this purpose, we followed the contour decomposition method, so that we distinguished the effect of changes in mortality corresponding to the initial period and the effect of changes corresponding to changes in mortality in terms of time.