Decomposing longevity: How life expectancy changes around the world

In economics, most empirical studies of the consequences of changes in longevity focus on life expectancy, without considering other moments of the survival probability distribution. Here, we apply a novel parsimonious parametric and easily implementable decomposition method of variation in longevity based on life table information. We document several empirical facts of longevity changes around the world and their associations with aggregate population dynamics and economic development, and demonstrate that a parametric decomposition of changes in longevity beyond life expectancy can be very useful for various applications.