Historical and Projected Mortality for Mexico,Canada, and the United States

Abstract

This paper presents historical death rates for Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. by sex and broad age group. The time period for this historical analysis begins with 1900 (1930 for Mexico). These data provide a quite consistent basis from which experts can develop and contrast their expectations for future mortality trends. Official mortality projections developed by government agencies of each of the three countries provide a starting point for this discussion.

During this century, death rates declined fairly rapidly in all three countries. However, the rate of mortality improvement has varied considerably across time periods: distinct periods of rapid and slow improvement are evident in the data, but are not consistent across the countries and have not yet been explained.

The historical rates of improvement in mortality have also varied greatly by age and sex: younger age groups have shown the most rapid proportional improvement in mortality in all three countries, and mortality improvement during this century has generally been greater for females than for males. However, the data provide evidence that this difference in the rates of mortality improvement between men and women has recently slowed, and even reversed, in the U.S. and Canada. Historical experience and projections are provided in graphs, in which death rates are plotted on a logarithmic scale. This approach allows easy detection of the extent to which rates of improvement have been changing (death rates with constant rates of improvement would be plotted as straight lines).

The official projections supplied for comparison provide strikingly similar outlooks for future potential mortality improvement. In each case, the relatively average rapid rate of mortality improvement experienced so far this century is assumed to slow in the future. In addition, rates of improvement are projected to be much more similar for all three countries across age groups and between the sexes.     

Insurance as an alternative environmental regulator: findings from a retrospective pollution claims survey

Little inquiry has occurred on insurance as an alternative environmental regulator, despite a growing interest in the subject. This paper presents the findings from a survey and questionnaire on two leading UK insurance companies' pollution claims. Insurers' initial underwriting assessments and post‐loss investigations and insureds' environmental management practices are poorly developed regarding pollution issues. Insurance is currently a weak financial instrument to prevent pollution losses. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment     

Multiple-Category Decision-Making: Review and Synthesis

In many purchase environments, consumers use information from a number of product categories prior to making a decision. These purchase situations create dependencies in choice outcomes across categories. As such, these decision problems cannot be easily modeled using the single-category, single-choice paradigm commonly used by researchers in marketing. We outline a conceptual framework for categorization, and then discuss three types of cross-category dependence: cross-category consideration cross-category learning, and product bundling. We argue that the key to modeling choice dependence across categories is knowledge of the goals driving consumer behavior.     

The desire for land: Strategic lending with adverse selection

This paper deals with a setting in which borrowers and lenders place different values on an asset that can be used as collateral. Under adverse selection, lenders may rationally choose credit contracts with the object of attracting a relatively risky group of clients, so raising their chances of gaining possession of the asset through default. Contracts of differing attractiveness to borrowers can also coexist in equilibrium. When an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’ lender compete, the latter placing a lower value on the collateral, and their loanable funds are sufficiently limited, a separating equilibrium may exist in which the insider offers a contract which attracts risky borrowers, whereas the outsider's contract is aimed at a safer group. If loanable funds are ample, the only equilibrium will involve pooling contracts, but the insider may still offer more attractive contracts in an entry game.     

Poverty Among Young Australians

In this article the incidence of poverty among the young is explained in terms of their labour force experience, educational attainment, gender, and living arrangements. The availability of the Australian Longitudinal Survey data enables the incomes of individuals to be related to many other socioeconomic variables over a number of years.
Generally the poor do not have high levels of education. About half of those classified as poor, endured a poverty spell of one year. But less than five per cent of the poor were so in each of the four survey years. Many of the poor were studying. Their low current incomes were presumably endured in the anticipation of high future earnings. The young women who were poor, many with children, were typically living in households offering them no additional financial support.     

Rehabilitation of disability benefit claimants other than dependency

Canadian sponsors of successful rehabilitation programs have found they offer impressive benefits for participants in long-term disability plans, as well as for employers and insurers. However, multiemployer plans frequently are not able to capitalize on these benefits.