Socio-Economic Conditions and Mortality in Italy

In this paper we examine the relation among socio-economic conditions, health, and mortality, making use of data from the Survey of Household Income and Wealth carried out by the Bank of Italy. The analysis is crucial not only from a demographic, sociological, and epidemiological point of view, but also at the economic level. The differential mortality by economic conditions may be useful to assess the progressivity of the pension system: if people with higher incomes tend to live longer, they will obtain greater advantage from social benefits compared to individuals with lower incomes and a higher risk of death. The analysis of differential mortality may also contribute to explaining the high percentage of rich people in older age. Our analysis shows a significant link between these variables: in particular, low education and low income increase the risks of bad health and mortality. A better quality of public health services is associated with lower risks of bad health and mortality; the effect of this variable turns out to be more relevant for the poor, who presumably do not have the opportunity to use private facilities.