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Social Indicators Research

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20.06.2016

Is Economic Policy Uncertainty Related to Suicide Rates? Evidence from the United States

verfasst von: Nikolaos Antonakakis, Rangan Gupta

Erschienen in: Social Indicators Research | Ausgabe 2/2017

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Abstract

While it has long been recognised that periods of economic uncertainty, characterised by increased unemployment and lower economic activity, are associated with increased suicide rates, no study has examined the impact of policy-related economic uncertainty on suicide mortality. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and suicide mortality in the United States over the period 1950–2013 , while controlling for several other socioeconomic determinants of suicide mortality, as well as age- and gender-variations. The results of the analysis reveal that increased economic policy uncertainty is associated with increased suicide mortality of the youngest and the oldest segments of the male population in the United States, while the female population across all ages is found to be resilient to changes in economic policy uncertainty.

Vorheriger Artikel Estimating Income-Dependent Relative Income Effects in the UK

Nächster Artikel Economic and Social Determinants of Human Development: A New Perspective

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For a comprehensive survey of socioeconomic determinants of suicides see Chen et al. (2012).

We have checked and confirmed that compatibility is ensured when extending the data from WHO Mortality with data from the CDC database from 2010 onwards.

The EPU index data, as well as their detailed description, can be obtained from http://www.policyuncertainty.com/us_historical.html.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/29/breadwinner-moms/.

An interesting, yet worrisome, aspect of our results is that EPU is shown to affect the age-group of 15–24 as well. This could possibly be driven by males in the age range of of 22–24 years, during which point in their lives the students enter into the job market after an undergraduate degree. Also, the younger generation is relatively more informed and forward-looking before entering into the job market and a bleak forecast of the economy, due to higher EPU, could lead to the increased impact on suicide rates for this age group.

The results based on models (2) and (3) for the various age sub-groups are qualitatively very similar to those obtained from model (1), regarding the effect of EPU on suicide rates, and thus not presented, however, are available upon request from the authors.

The results of this analysis for the various age sub-groups point to similar conclusions. These results are available upon request from the authors.

Once again, the results for the various age sub-groups point to similar conclusions and thus are not presented, however, are available upon request from the authors.

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Titel: Is Economic Policy Uncertainty Related to Suicide Rates? Evidence from the United States
verfasst von: Nikolaos Antonakakis
Rangan Gupta
Publikationsdatum: 20.06.2016
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in: Social Indicators Research / Ausgabe 2/2017
Print ISSN: 0303-8300
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-0921
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1384-4

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