Socio-Economic Studies on Suicide: A Survey

Joe Chen, Yun Jeong Choi, Kohta Mori, Yasuyuki Sawada () and Saki Sugano
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Joe Chen: Department of Public Finance, National Chengchi University
Yun Jeong Choi: Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo
Kohta Mori: Department of Economics, Yale University
Saki Sugano: Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo

No CIRJE-F-629, CIRJE F-Series from CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

Abstract: In this article, we review economic theories and empirical studies on the socioeconomic aspects of suicide. Through our survey, we would like to emphasize the importance of studying suicide by employing a "rational" approach that complements the medical perspective on suicide, which assumes suicide to be the result of "irrational" behavior arising from mental illnesses such as depression and other psychiatric disorders. We first introduce major economic theories of suicide, followed by a summary of a variety of empirical studies from the socioeconomic perspective. We then discuss the recent developments in economic studies on suicide, on the basis of the authors' ongoing project on suicide. In the concluding section, we point out some issues for further studies.

New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
Date: 2009-07
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tky:fseres:2009cf629

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