Male excess mortality during the epidemiological transition

Theory and evidence from India

Bibliographic Data

ID12195047
AuthorsAstrid Krenz (Ruhr University Bochum), Holger Strulik (0000-0002-5615-2412, University of Göttingen, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume38
Issue4
Publication date2025-09-09
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Population Economics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0933-1433 • E-ISSN: 1432-1475
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s00148-025-01124-0
OpenAlexW4414169527
LanguageEN
References cited55

At any given age, adult men die at a higher rate than women. In many developed countries, increasing excess mortality of men has been demonstrated for cohorts born in the late nineteenth century and thereafter. The decline in infectious diseases is believed to have contributed to the increase in male excess mortality. Here, we focus on India during 1990–2019, a period in which the Indian states experienced, to varying degrees, the epidemiological transition. We show that male excess mortality evolves positively over the observation period, is greater in later-born cohorts, and is strongly associated with the decline in infectious disease mortality. We propose a simple theory that explains these facts by a greater influence of infections on the biological aging of women compared to men. We calibrate the model with Indian data and show that it can replicate the feature of rising male excess mortality over time and birth year of cohorts

Developed country · Disease · Excess mortality · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Mortality rate · Sex ratio · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Health disparities and outcomes · Insurance, Mortality, Demography, Risk Management · Epidemiology

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