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Don’t Go Breaking your Heart: Do Economic Upturns Really Increase Heart Attack Mortality?

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  • Svensson, Mikael

    (Department of Business, Economics, Statistics and Informatics)

Abstract

Several recent papers in the literature have found that short-term economic upturns are bad for your health (a pro-cyclical effect). In this paper I explore the relationship between business cycles and incidence and mortality in acute myocardial infarction (heart attacks) in Sweden. The sample consists of 21 Swedish regions during the period 1987 to 2003. Results from the panel data estimations indicate that the business cycle effect is insignificant on overall rates of incidence and mortality. However, a counter-cyclical and significant effect is found in most specifications for those in prime working age between 20 and 49. It is also shown that a higher share of women, highly educated and non-foreigners decrease incidence and mortality. Further it is shown that results are sensitive to different business cycle proxies as well as different model specifications and previous results from the literature cannot be taken as universal for other countries or settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Svensson, Mikael, 2006. "Don’t Go Breaking your Heart: Do Economic Upturns Really Increase Heart Attack Mortality?," Working Papers 2006:8, Örebro University, School of Business, revised 01 Nov 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2006_008
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mortality; Incidence; Heart attacks; Business cycles; Health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

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