Werther at Work: Intra-firm Spillovers of Suicides

Martin Halla () and Bernhard Schmidpeter ()
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Martin Halla: Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Bernhard Schmidpeter: Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business

Department of Economics Working Papers from Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics

Abstract: Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide and a critical public health concern. We examine the hypothesis of suicide contagion within in the workplace, investigating whether exposure to a coworker's suicide increases an individual's suicide risk. Using high-quality administrative data from Austria and an event study approach, we compare approximately 150,000 workers exposed to a coworker's suicide with a matched group exposed to a "placebo suicide". We find a significant increase in suicide risk for exposed individuals, with a cumulative treatment effect of 0.04 percentage points (33.3 percent) over a 20-year post-event period. Exposed individuals who also die by suicide are more likely to use the same method as their deceased coworker, strongly suggesting a causal link. Two placebo tests bolster this interpretation: workers who left the firm before the suicide and those exposed to a coworker's fatal car accident do not show an elevated suicide risk.

Keywords: Suicide; workplace; contagion hypothesis; Werther-effect; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 I10 I12 I18 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-02
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