Date of Award

5-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Legacy Department

Economics

Committee Chair/Advisor

Tom, Mroz

Committee Member

Matthew , Lewis S.

Committee Member

Daniel , Miller

Abstract

Since the 20th century, U.S. health spending has continuously increased, but the residents' life expectancy has not reached the average level of OECD countries. In this paper, hazard duration models are built; primary demographic, geographic, socioeconomic and healthcare factors are taken into consideration. The main purpose of this paper is to study the effect of these factors on an individual's risk of mortality and life expectancy. We build a general model and two gender-specific models. Females are affected by relative deprivation, a measure of their position in the income distribution, much more than males. The effect of family income is only statistically significant for male. In terms of healthcare factors, we find, when people get older, the health spending will have more beneficial (for men) or at least less negative effects (for women) on the life span.

Included in

Economics Commons

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