Page 34 - IJPS-7-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Gender gap in life expectancy in South and East Europe

(2021). Accordingly, since the death cases between the ages indicators. In this regard, urban growth, the economic
of 15 and 40 are insignificantly low, the proportion of male development through GDP per capita, and economic
to female mortality rates at that age has a negligible impact indicators, especially income inequality of population
on the sex differences in LEAB. In addition, it was also with the Gini index as a proxy measure, have significant
clearly added by Trovato and Heyen (2006) and; Attaneé impact on gender gap in. Comparing these results for
and Barbiéri (2009), that the contribution of age groups these countries can provide a clearer understanding of
under 35 on sex differences in LEAB is insignificant. the dynamics of the gender gap in LEAB. The findings
of this study may be useful to propose some policy
Finally, the model results clearly show that an increase
in LEAB for an increase in LEAB for both sexes is associated recommendations to reduce the economic risks within
different economic circumstances as well as in the domain
with a decline in the gender gap in LEAB. This finding of population health. This research also calls for a more
suggests that when LEAB reaches a high level or a plateau comprehensive study with all countries of the world with
such as in South and East European countries (i.e., a later longer time periods for more robust findings.
demographic transition stage), the advantage in mortality
for females over males tends to reduce. This is interesting. Acknowledgments
However, to understand and disentangle, some root causes
of such phenomenon need a global analysis with a much The author wishes to thank the two anonymous reviewers
longer analytical time period. and the editor for their very helpful comments.
The study limitations include the lack of focus on Funding
different sets of countries separately but only using a large None.
pool to measure gender gap in LEAB. For that reason,
some of our results seem to be contradictory, but this is so Conflict of interest
since these regions within East and South Europe provide
different cultural and historical backgrounds as well as The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
various economic challenges, which may have an impact on Author contributions
not only country-specific fixed effects but also to the slopes
of the economic development factors. Future research This is a single-authored paper.
can address these shortcomings and give strength to the Ethics statement
conclusions of their research. Therefore, our suggestion is
that the future cross-country research in this field includes Not applicable as this study involves the analysis of secondary
a focus on different sets of countries: Developed versus data collected by the UN and World Bank websites.
less developed countries, Balkan countries versus other
countries in these regions, etc. Availability of supporting data
Data utilized to this paper are from secondary sources
5. Conclusions and available to the public. The data can be freely accessed
In accordance with the present time trend of worldwide online from the World Bank Indicator database (http://
population aging, this research work has provided a new data.worldbank.org/indicator ), the UN databases (https://
perspective to confirm the relationship between the gender population.un.org/wpp and https:// unstats.un.org/unsd/
gap in LEAB and socioeconomic development, economic, snaama/Basic), and the WHO databases (https://apps.who.
and demographic indicators. This paper analyses the int/nha/database/ViewData/Indicators/en and https://
relation of these indicators and conditions in South and gateway. euro.who.int/en/datasets/european-health-for-
East Europe on the gender gap in LEAB. The results all-database).
suggest that the difference in employment rate of males
and females does not have statistically significant impacts References
on the differences in LEAB by sex. The not significant Aburto, J.M., & van Raalte, A. (2018). Lifespan dispersion in
effect was found for the difference in unemployment times of life expectancy fluctuation: The case of central and
of males and females as well as to social development Eastern Europe. Demography, 55(6):2071-2096.
indicators in relation to the sex gap in LEAB. Therefore, in https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-018-0729-9
general, it can be concluded that the economic inequality Alberts, S.C., Archie, E.A., Gesquiere, L.R., Altmann, J.,
between the sexes does not play some special role when it Vaupel, J.W., & Christensen, K. (2014). The male-female
comes to the gender gap in LEAB within these countries. health-survival paradox: A comparative perspective on sex
The same is with the impact of the social development differences in aging and mortality. In: M Weinstein and

Volume 7 Issue 2 (2021) 28 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v7i2.389