Simulations of spurious mortality crossovers
Panel A Consequences of varying rates of Methuselah error
Note: The reference group is from the SSA Life Tables. The “high mortality” group has a 40% higher mortality than the reference group. We then simulated missing deaths for the high mortality group, with error rates of 0%, 1%, 5%, 10% and 15%.
Panel B Simulation of a black-white mortality crossover with small rates of missing deaths
Note: The gray curve shows the probability of death for non-Hispanic whites, from the 2013 SSA Period Life Tables, and the black curve shows a population with 40% higher mortality. We then simulate missing deaths for the non-Hispanic whites at 1.8% and for blacks at 4.2%.