Volume 24 - Article 22 | Pages 527–550

Significance of life table estimates for small populations: Simulation-based study of estimation errors

By Sergei Scherbov, Dalkhat Ediev

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Date received:04 Oct 2010
Date published:31 Mar 2011
Word count:4811
Keywords:errors, life table, small populations
DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2011.24.22
 

Abstract

We study bias, standard errors, and distributions of characteristics of life tables for small populations. Theoretical considerations and simulations show that statistical efficiency of different methods is, above all, affected by the population size. Yet it is also significantly affected by the life table construction method and by a population’s age composition. Study results are presented in the form of ready-to-use tables and relations, which may be useful in assessing the significance of estimates and differences in life expectancy across time and space for the territories with a small population size, when standard errors of life expectancy estimates may be high.

Author's Affiliation

Sergei Scherbov - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria [Email]
Dalkhat Ediev - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria [Email]

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