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LIFE EXPECTANCY AS AN INTEGRATING CONCEPT IN SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS AND PLANNING 1
Author(s) -
Seers Dudley
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1977.tb00013.x
Subject(s) - life expectancy , social statistics , social change , index (typography) , ethnic group , demographic analysis , government (linguistics) , economics , economic growth , sociology , public economics , computer science , social science , developed country , demography , population , world wide web , anthropology , linguistics , philosophy
This paper considers the need for a more integrated system of social and demographic statistics than SSDS and discusses the advantages of building it on the concept of life expectancy. The system would include a network of additive tables which would (as SNA does for economic variables) bring together leading social variables in a way that would permit the effects of exogenous changes to be quantified and compared. The author proposes as the base of such a system a table giving the expected duration of various life states (education, employment, retirement, etc.). This would be supplemented by a family of social co‐efficients and fixed‐weight index numbers that slot into it, allowing inter‐temporal and international comparisons. The system would facilitate analysis of inequalities (regional, ethnic, etc.) and social change, and government planning of such change. It would also provide a framework for the development of national systems of social statistics.