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Business & Economics

EXPECTED LIFE EXPECTANCY AND ITS DETERMINANTS IN SELECTED EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Samer Khouri, Michal Cehlar, Karol Horansky, Klaudia Sandorova

ABSTRACT. In the current period, due to demographic aging, it is also important to monitor the development of life expectancy and to explore the determinants that affect it. Even in the European countries, large regional disparities are visible, not only between EU Member States but also within these countries. The main objective of our contribution was to quantify the impacts of selected determinants on the expected life span in European regions between 2001 and 2014. Using the regression analysis applied to the selected data set we could estimate which demographic and socio-economic variables affect the mean life expectancy at birth positive and negative. Regression analysis was performed using a model with fixed and random effects, of which a fixed-effect model was more suitable for our data structure, as confirmed by the Hausman test. On the basis of the estimated regression coefficients, we subsequently determined the impact of each indicator on the mean life expectancy at birth. In most cases, our assumed effect of these variables is confirmed by the variables explained to us. An unexpected result was reflected in GDP per capita GDP, which is also at odds with the theoretical starting points and the results of studies reported in the theoretical part. Knowledge of these impacts is very important not only for the development of relevant policy concepts in the country but also for national and international benchmarking  .

KEYWORDS: life expectancy at birth, socio-economic determinant, demographic determinant, demographic aging, national policies.