A Changing Nexus Between Unemployment and Suicide in Taiwan: Before and After Labor Welfare Improvement in the Late 1990s

Suicide has long been believed to be highly associated with unemployment. The connection between unemployment and suicide, however, might become weak with the development of social welfare system. Using the monthly data during 1991/1–2012/12 in Taiwan, the study examines the association between unemployment and suicide. Our empirical results reveal that unemployment rates clearly had a positive effect on suicide rates during 1990s when the social welfare system was not fully formatted. The positive suicide-unemployment nexus, however, was no longer significant since the authorities passed a series of welfare policies to take care of minorities with financial difficulties. The results show that labor welfare improvement may reduce the financial hardship from being jobless and, therefore, untied the connection between unemployment rates and suicide rates.