Life Expectancy, Fundamental Causes and Insights into the Socio-economic Status of Scottish Chartered Accountants

The aim of this paper is to consider whether the present-day finding of a link between life expectancy and factors such as social class and socio-economic status can be applied to chartered accountants over a broad timeframe. If the extant, though limited, evidence pointing to the higher social class of chartered accountants relative to the general population is correct, and if those from higher social classes do indeed live longer than the population as a whole, then it would be expected that chartered accountants would have a life expectancy premium over non-chartered accountants. This study aims to investigate such insights by addressing the following three research questions. First, do chartered accountants live longer than the population as a whole? Second, can an examination of the life expectancy of chartered accountants offer insights into the social class of accountants? Third, can an examination of the life expectancy of chartered accountants offer any insights into any benefits of social mobility? In order to frame this study, theories of mortality are reviewed with the main focus being on the theory of fundamental causes that is gaining increasing traction within medical and epidemiological literature. We analyse the life expectancy of 4,469 members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) who were admitted to ICAS between formation in 1853 and 1940, an 87 year period. We find that in all periods covered by our study, members of ICAS live longer than the general population and that the difference is of sufficient magnitude not to have occurred by chance. Given the wide-ranging nature of this data, our results provide reliable insights into the socio-economic status of chartered accountants, their lifestyles and the benefits of people becoming chartered accountants.