On stochastic comparisons of population age structures and life expectancies

Cohort measures, describing a lifetime random variable are easily and unambiguously obtained using standard tools. On the contrary, the lifetime random variable, and therefore life expectancy, for the period setting cannot be unambiguously defined without additional simplifying assumptions. For non-stationary populations the corresponding conventional period measures should be justified in some way. Our paper is based on Bongaarts and Feeney (2002). We consider different measures of life expectancy and compare them for specific populations using stochastic ordering of the corresponding random variables. This gives possibility to look at the problem in a more general way.