Shared Lifetime and Years of Shared Life Lost: A Demographic Analysis by Socioeconomic Status

Amanda Martins de Almeida, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)

The life courses of individuals intersect with those of their kin, resulting in shared lifetimes shaped by mortality and fertility processes. For instance, the years a woman shares with her mother begin at birth and end when either she or her mother dies. If the mother experiences an early death, the shared time is reduced. This study measures two key indicators across different socioeconomic status (SES): "Shared Lifetime" (SLT), which quantifies the time individuals spend with their mothers while both are alive, and "Years of Shared Life Lost" (YSLL), which denotes the time they do not get to share with their mothers due to early maternal death. Fertility and mortality rates vary by SES, suggesting that kin structures and these indicators may change depending on an individual's SES. To explore these differences, I compute average kinship networks across SES groups using education-specific fertility and mortality rates. This analysis uses mortality data from the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (Istat) and fertility data from the Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Data. Preliminary results suggest that less educated individuals and their mothers have greater SLT compared to more educated individuals. However, those with less education also experience earlier maternal loss.

Keywords: Family Planning and Contraception, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Human Capital, Education, and Work

See extended abstract.