INCOME-DISTRIBUTION AND LIFE EXPECTANCY - A CRITICAL-APPRAISAL

In a series of papers published during the past decade Richard Wilkins on has advanced the view that income inequality is the key determinant of variations in average life expectancy at birth among developed cou ntries. Yet a careful examination of the two sources of data on income distribution most often used by Wilkinson suggests that if they are a nalysed more appropriately they do not lend support to his claims. Mor e recent data on income distribution is now available for several coun tries in the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation in the mid-1980s and for Great Britain from 1961 to 1991. The use of thes e data also casts doubt on the hypothesis that inequalities in the dis tribution of income are closely associated with variations in average life expectancy at birth among the richest nations of the world.