Economic status as a determinant of mortality among black and white older men: Does poverty kill? Population Studies 47(3

those of the author alone and do not reflect the views of the sponsoring institutions. The evidence presented in this paper shows that differential mortality rates by economic status are strongly present in the United States today, and that this relationship is monotonic, with the wealthiest decile having lower death rates than the next wealthiest decile. Differential mortality rates by economic status can be said to be confused with the well-known racial difference in mortality. An implication of this paper, then, is that racial differences in mortality are, in large part, a consequence of poverty or low permanent income, as opposed to racial genotype. Consequently, it may be just as valid, or even more so, to publish mortality tables by income as by race. Another implication of this paper is that the redistributive effects of longevity-based transfer systems, such as Social Security, may be less "progressive " than assumed, since would-be poorer recipients are either less likely to live long enough to collect any benefits in the first place or will not live to collect them for as long a period of time as will more affluent recipients. In addition, I fail to find a direct effect of schooling on survival-probability. Consequently, the beneficial effect of schooling on longevity must work through its effect upon income, with only the latter directly influencing mortality risk