A short note on the Taeuber paradox

Abstract

When the force of mortality is reduced by a constant fraction delta at every age, the relative increase in life expectancy e(0) can be measured by deltaH, where H is determined by the l(a) values of the life table. Although H is not easily reducible in terms of the well-known life table parameters, it has been shown that it can be approximately estimated by 2 - e(0)/a in which a is the average age of the stationary population. It has been found that, for a given value of delta, the relative gain in life expectancy is less appreciable in countries with larger values of e(0).