Is Economic Policy Uncertainty Related to Suicide Rates? Evidence from the United States

Nikolaos Antonakakis and Rangan Gupta

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2017, vol. 133, issue 2, No 7, 543-560

Abstract: Abstract While it has long been recognised that periods of economic uncertainty, characterised by increased unemployment and lower economic activity, are associated with increased suicide rates, no study has examined the impact of policy-related economic uncertainty on suicide mortality. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and suicide mortality in the United States over the period 1950–2013 , while controlling for several other socioeconomic determinants of suicide mortality, as well as age- and gender-variations. The results of the analysis reveal that increased economic policy uncertainty is associated with increased suicide mortality of the youngest and the oldest segments of the male population in the United States, while the female population across all ages is found to be resilient to changes in economic policy uncertainty.

Keywords: United States; Economic policy uncertainty; Suicide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 E60 I31 J11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Working Paper: Is Economic Policy Uncertainty Related to Suicide Rates? Evidence from the United States (2015)
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-016-1384-4

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