Eliciting Survival Expectations of the Elderly in Low-Income Countries: Evidence From India

Overview

Journal Demography

Specialty Public Health

Date 2017 Mar 11

PMID 28281273

Citations 4

Authors

Adeline Delavande

Jinkook Lee

Seetha Menon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We examine several methodological considerations when eliciting probabilistic expectations in a developing country context using the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI). We conclude that although, on average, individuals are able to understand the concept of probability, responses are sensitive to framing effects and to own versus hypothetical-person effects. We find that overall, people are pessimistic about their survival probabilities compared with state-specific life tables and that socioeconomic status does influence beliefs about own survival expectations as found in previous literature in other countries. Higher levels of education and income have a positive association with survival expectations, and these associations persist even when conditioning on self-reported health. The results remain robust to several alternative specifications. We then compare the survival measures with objective measures of health. We find that activities of daily life, height, and low hemoglobin levels covary with subjective expectations in expected directions.

Citing Articles

Mortality risk information and health-seeking behavior during an epidemic.

Purcell H, Kohler I, Ciancio A, Mwera J, Delavande A, Mwapasa V Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024; 121(28):e2315677121.

PMID: 38959039 PMC: 11252761. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2315677121.

MORTALITY RISK INFORMATION, SURVIVAL EXPECTATIONS AND SEXUAL BEHAVIOURS.

Ciancio A, Delavande A, Kohler H, Kohler I Econ J (London). 2024; 134(660):1431-1464.

PMID: 38707864 PMC: 11065140. DOI: 10.1093/ej/uead116.

You Know What I Know: Interviewer Knowledge Effects in Subjective Expectation Elicitation.

Kerwin J, Ordaz Reynoso N Demography. 2021; 58(1):1-29.

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Individual Uncertainty About Longevity.

Dormont B, Samson A, Fleurbaey M, Luchini S, Schokkaert E Demography. 2018; 55(5):1829-1854.

PMID: 30242662 DOI: 10.1007/s13524-018-0713-4.

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