Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century
Anne Case, Angus Deaton
Summary
The paper documents rising midlife mortality among non-Hispanic white Americans without a college degree since the late 1990s, driven by 'deaths of despair' from drugs, alcohol, and suicide alongside stalled progress against heart disease. The authors link these trends to a long-term deterioration in economic and social conditions for less-educated workers.
Key findings
- Midlife mortality for non-Hispanic whites with a high-school degree or less rose since the late 1990s, diverging from declines elsewhere.
- Mortality increases are concentrated in deaths from drug overdoses, suicide, and alcoholic liver disease ('deaths of despair').
- Successive birth cohorts show cumulative disadvantage in wages, marriage, health, and labor-force attachment, pointing to a slow erosion of working-class life rather than a transient shock.
Subjects & keywords
Cite this paper
Anne Case, & Angus Deaton (2017). Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. https://doi.org/10.1353/eca.2017.0005
@article{case2017mortality,
author = {Anne Case and Angus Deaton},
title = {Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century},
journal = {Brookings Papers on Economic Activity},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1353/eca.2017.0005},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1353/eca.2017.0005}
}