Abstracto
- Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world, but Rosero-Bixby (2008) has surprisingly found that when examining remaining life expectancy at age 90, Costa Rican men outperform even Japan. The United States (U.S.) is wellknown to under-perform in life expectancy, with Costa Rica having higher life expectancy at birth than the U.S., but at age 90 the U.S. reduces this gap and achieves similar remaining life expectancy as in Japan. Prior work suggests that these findings are not an artifact of poor data. In this paper we explore two alternative phenomena to help understand these surprising results. First, we exploit harmonized longitudinal surveys in Costa Rica (CRELES), Japan (NUJLSOA), and the U.S. (HRS) in order to extend these analyses to comparisons of Disability-Free Life Expectancy (DFLE). We compare DFLE by sex at age 65 and then among the oldest-old at age 90, in order to explore whether the relative life expectancy patterns also hold for DFLE. Second, we explore evidence on mortality selection in order to better understand the extent to which differential rates of early life mortality could affect these life expectancy comparisons.