End of life in Europe: an empirical analysis

The goal of this study is to find covariates impacting most profoundly on the risk of death. Individuals aged 50 and more, observed in the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, are examined. The data include 1,692 deceased individuals who took part in up to 3 waves of data collection. Our results, relying on the proportional hazard model, show that the impact of health and demographic factors on the risk of death is more pronounced than that of social factors. It is found that economic factors are statistically insignificant for the risk of death, checking other factors in the model.