Mortality surface by means of continuous time cohort models

We study and calibrate a cohort-based model which captures the characteristics of a mortality surface with a parsimonious, continuous-time factor approach. The model allows for imperfect correlation of the mortality intensity across generations. It is implemented on UK data for the period 1900-2008. Calibration by means of stochastic search and the Differential Evolution optimization algorithm proves to yield robust and stable parameters. We provide in-sample and out-of-sample, deterministic as well as stochastic forecasts. Calibration confirms that correlation across generations is smaller than one.