Cohen weighs in on Case and Deaton discovery
A recent paper by Princeton economists, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, made waves for its claim that mortality rates for middle-aged, working class White Americans have undergone an unprecedented rise in the past decade. Faculty Associate Philip Cohen, while analyzing the validity of this claim, found that roughly half of the rise in mortality rates was due to changes in the composition of the U.S. population. In other words, since there are more people within the 45-54 year age group than there were before, and mortality rates in older age groups are high to begin with, the rise in mortality rates is partly due to changes in the composition of middle-aged, White Americans. While other researchers have similarly vetted the finding, they concede that mortality rates for this sub-group of White Americans have indeed risen, but not as much as originally reported.