The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on State Suicide Rates: A Methodological Note

Mitch Kunce and April L. Anderson
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Mitch Kunce: Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3985, USA. mkunce@uwyo.edu
April L. Anderson: Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3415, USA. Fax: 307 766 5090. aprila@uwyo.edu

Urban Studies, 2002, vol. 39, issue 1, 155-162

Abstract: This note examines the purported impact of conventional socioeconomic and social environment factors on annual, state-level suicide rates. Results from an inductive fixed-effects (covariance) analysis, of state-level time-series/cross-section data for the period 1985-95, do little to support Durkheim's social causes hypothesis that aggregate socioeconomic factors matter in explaining state suicide rates. A possible source of heterogeneity-aggregation bias is identified raising questions surrounding past inferences made in aggregate suicide research. The data and empirical method support a mounting sentiment of an abiding ecological fallacy in the suicide literature. Implications of this investigation call for a shift in research focus and method to a smaller unit of analysis (for example, individual-level, controlling for key social processes).

Date: 2002
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:39:y:2002:i:1:p:155-162

DOI: 10.1080/00420980220099131

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