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Economic Correlates of Suicide Rates in OECD Countries

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Author Info
Thomas Maag () (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

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Abstract

This paper investigates how economic conditions are associated with age-sex group specific suicide rates in a panel of 28 OECD countries over the period 1980-2002. We consider the trend and cyclical components of income, unemployment, income inequality, inflation, as well as various socio-demographic control variables. Results depend on whether stationarity properties are adequately accommodated or not. Estimating models in first differences we find that the cyclical component of income is negatively associated with suicide rates of men, while unemployment primarily affects suicide rates of women. Moreover, our estimations show that the effects of the cyclical component of income and unemployment are most pronounced in OECD countries with low public social security spending.

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Paper provided by KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich in its series KOF Working papers with number 08-207.

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Length: 46 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:kof:wpskof:08-207

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Related research
Keywords: suicide; happiness; welfare; health;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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This page was last updated on 2009-11-10.

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