Labor markets and mental wellbeing: Labor market conditions and suicides in the United States (1979–2004)

Amin Mohseni-Cheraghlou

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2013, vol. 45, issue C, 175-186

Abstract: Applying a fixed-effects panel analysis to a 1979–2004 panel data of the U.S. states, this essay re-examines the link between labor markets and suicides in the United States. By disaggregating the analysis across genders and three different age groups (20–34, 35–64, and 65+) and analyzing several other labor market indicators besides overall unemployment rates, the essay finds that deteriorations in labor markets is associated with hikes in suicide rates of only men and women between 35 and 64 years of age. In other words, higher group-specific unemployment rates, larger deviations of unemployment rates from their group-specific trends, and larger variance in the overall unemployment rates are all associated with higher suicide rates of adults aged 35–64, or prime working-age adults. These findings suggest that the mental wellbeing of prime working-age adults is more dependent on labor market conditions than people in other age groups. Therefore, during period when prime working-age adults are facing unfavorable labor market conditions, U.S. suicide prevention programs must especially target this group of population.

Keywords: Suicide; Mental wellbeing; Labor markets; Unemployment; Fixed-effects; Panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053535713000814
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:45:y:2013:i:c:p:175-186

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2013.05.003

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics) is currently edited by Pablo Brañas Garza

More articles in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics) from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().