Location-Scale Models in Demography: A Useful Re-parameterization of Mortality Models.

ABSTRACT: Several parametric mortality models have been proposed to describe the age pattern of mortality since Gompertz introduced his "law of mortality" almost two centuries ago. However, very few attempts have been made to reconcile most of these models within a single framework. In this article, we show that many mortality models used in the demographic and actuarial literature can be re-parameterized in terms of a general and flexible family of models, the family of location-scale (LS) models. These models are characterized by two parameters that have a direct demographic interpretation: the location and scale parameters, which capture the shifting and compression dynamics of mortality changes, respectively. Re-parameterizing a model in terms of the LS family has several advantages over its cla

SUBMITTER: Basellini U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6797696 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature