COVID-19 and suicides in the United States: an early empirical assessment

Gerardo Ruiz Sánchez ()
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Gerardo Ruiz Sánchez: Trinity College

SN Business & Economics, 2022, vol. 2, issue 7, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract 2017–2020 data from Medical Examiner Offices of 19 large U.S. counties are collected to study how suicides evolved during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. I use these data to obtain three key findings. First, I document that the total number of suicides per month was increasing during the early months of the pandemic but was below previous years’ levels. Second, using a monthly event study design to account for seasonal trends and county-level differences in suicides, I find that during April through August 2020, monthly suicides were between 11.2 and 20.5% lower than previous years. Third, I explore whether school closures during the start of the pandemic might be associated with suicides among school-age individuals, and I find that monthly suicides increased relative to previous years for this age group, with the highest increases during the summer.

Keywords: COVID-19; Suicide; The United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I14 J38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s43546-022-00235-0

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