Outline

This seminar will focus on the increase in human longevity, in particular, the lengthening of survival at old ages. A substantial decline in old-age mortality started in many economically developed countries during the third quarter of the twentieth century. The objective of this seminar is to review and discuss latest empirical findings and theories about causes, consequences, and future prospects of the longevity expansion, thereby stimulating and encouraging further investigation.

Although the decline of old-age mortality has been widely publicized as a demographic fact, our understanding of why the decline has occurred is limited. It is possible to develop a long list of factors that might have contributed to the lengthening of old-age survival, but relative importance of those factors and causal pathways through which many of the factors exerted their effects remain unclear. This seminar will discuss