IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v45y2013icp175-186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Mohseni-Cheraghlou, Amin

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohseni-Cheraghlou, Amin, 2013. "Labor markets and mental wellbeing: Labor market conditions and suicides in the United States (1979–2004)," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 175-186.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:45:y:2013:i:c:p:175-186
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2013.05.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053535713000814
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2013.05.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cesar Calvo & Stefan Dercon, 2005. "Measuring Individual Vulnerability," Economics Series Working Papers 229, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. David Neumark, 2000. "Changes in Job Stability and Job Security: A Collective Effort to Untangle, Reconcile, and Interpret the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 7472, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Brainerd, Elizabeth, 2001. "Economic reform and mortality in the former Soviet Union: A study of the suicide epidemic in the 1990s," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 1007-1019, May.
    4. Rafael Di Tella & Robert J. MacCulloch & Andrew J. Oswald, 2003. "The Macroeconomics of Happiness," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 809-827, November.
    5. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    6. Bijou Yang, 1992. "The Economy and Suicide:," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 87-99, January.
    7. Jon Wisman, 2010. "The Moral Imperative and Social Rationality of Government-Guaranteed Employment and Reskilling," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(1), pages 35-67.
    8. Eric Neumayer, 2003. "Socioeconomic Factors and Suicide Rates at Large-unit Aggregate Levels: A Comment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(13), pages 2769-2776, December.
    9. Clark, Andrew E & Oswald, Andrew J, 1994. "Unhappiness and Unemployment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(424), pages 648-659, May.
    10. Andy Chung, 2009. "Gender difference in suicide, household production and unemployment," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(19), pages 2495-2504.
    11. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2014. "This Time is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of Financial Crises," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 15(2), pages 215-268, November.
    12. Bruno, Giovanni S.F., 2005. "Approximating the bias of the LSDV estimator for dynamic unbalanced panel data models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 361-366, June.
    13. Bun, Maurice J. G. & Kiviet, Jan F., 2003. "On the diminishing returns of higher-order terms in asymptotic expansions of bias," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 145-152, May.
    14. Bijou Yang & David Lester, 1995. "Suicide, homicide and unemployment," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(8), pages 278-279.
    15. Gould, M.S. & Wallenstein, S. & Kleinman, M.H. & O'Carroll, P. & Mercy, J., 1990. "Suicide clusters: An examination of age-specific effects," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 80(2), pages 211-212.
    16. Jungeilges, Jochen & Kirchgassner, Gebhard, 2002. "Economic welfare, civil liberty, and suicide: an empirical investigation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 215-231.
    17. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    18. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    19. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650.
    20. Yang, Bijou & Stack, Steven & Lester, David, 1992. "Suicide and unemployment: Predicting the smoothed trend and yearly fluctuations," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 39-41.
    21. Bentzen, Jan & Smith, Valdemar, 2002. "An empirical analysis of the effect of labour market characteristics on marital dissolution rates," Working Papers 02-14, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    22. Giovanni S. F. Bruno, 2005. "Estimation and inference in dynamic unbalanced panel-data models with a small number of individuals," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 5(4), pages 473-500, December.
    23. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2006. "Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: Divorce Laws and Family Distress," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 267-288.
    24. Robert H. Topel & Michael P. Ward, 1992. "Job Mobility and the Careers of Young Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 439-479.
    25. Mitch Kunce & April L. Anderson, 2002. "The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on State Suicide Rates: A Methodological Note," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(1), pages 155-162, January.
    26. Basu, Kaushik & Nolen, Patrick, 2004. "Vulnerability, Unemployment and Poverty: A New Class of Measures, Its Axiomatic Properties and Application," Working Papers 04-07, Cornell University, Center for Analytic Economics.
    27. Hamermesh, Daniel S & Soss, Neal M, 1974. "An Economic Theory of Suicide," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 83-98, Jan.-Feb..
    28. Calvo, Cesar, 2008. "Vulnerability to Multidimensional Poverty: Peru, 1998-2002," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1011-1020, June.
    29. Buddelmeyer, Hielke & Jensen, Paul H. & Oguzoglu, Umut & Webster, Elizabeth, 2008. "Fixed Effects Bias in Panel Data Estimators," IZA Discussion Papers 3487, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    30. Minoiu, Camelia & Andres, Antonio Rodriguez, 2008. "The effect of public spending on suicide: Evidence from U.S. state data," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 237-261, February.
    31. Steven J. Davis & R. Jason Faberman & John Haltiwanger, 2006. "The Flow Approach to Labor Markets: New Data Sources and Micro-Macro Links," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 3-26, Summer.
    32. Jahyeong Koo & W. Michael Cox, 2008. "An Economic Interpretation Of Suicide Cycles In Japan," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(1), pages 162-174, January.
    33. Antonio Rodriguez Andres, 2005. "Income inequality, unemployment, and suicide: a panel data analysis of 15 European countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 439-451.
    34. Chuanc, Hwei-Lin & Huang, Wei-Chiao, 1997. "Economic and social correlates of regional suicide rates: A pooled cross-section and time-series analysis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 277-289.
    35. Neumayer, Eric, 2004. "Recessions lower (some) mortality rates:: evidence from Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 1037-1047, March.
    36. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    37. Bernhardt, Annette & Morris, Martina & Handcock, Mark S & Scott, Marc A, 1999. "Trends in Job Instability and Wages for Young Adult Men," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(4), pages 65-90, October.
    38. Noh, Yong-Hwan, 2009. "Does unemployment increase suicide rates? The OECD panel evidence," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 575-582, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohseni-Cheraghlou, Amin, 2016. "The Aftermath of Financial Crises: A Look on Human and Social Wellbeing," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 88-106.
    2. Emilio Colombo & Valentina Rotondi & Luca Stanca, 2018. "Macroeconomic conditions and well-being: do social interactions matter?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(28), pages 3029-3038, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Minoiu, Camelia & Andres, Antonio Rodriguez, 2008. "The effect of public spending on suicide: Evidence from U.S. state data," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 237-261, February.
    2. Antonakakis, Nikolaos & Collins, Alan, 2018. "A suicidal Kuznets curve?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 90-93.
    3. Justina AV Fischer & Antonio Rodriguez-Andr�s, 2008. "Political institutions and suicide: A regional analysis of Switzerland," TWI Research Paper Series 33, Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut, Universität Konstanz.
    4. Yamamura, Eiji, 2015. "Comparison of Social Trust's effect on suicide ideation between urban and non-urban areas: The Case of Japanese Adults in 2006," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 118-126.
    5. Antonakakis, Nikolaos & Collins, Alan, 2015. "The impact of fiscal austerity on suicide mortality: Evidence across the ‘Eurozone periphery’," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 63-78.
    6. Nikolaos Antonakakis & Nikolaos Antonakakis & Alan Collins, 2014. "Does Fiscal Consolidation Really Get You Down? Evidence from Suicide Mortality," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp182, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    7. Chen, Joe & Choi, Yun Jeong & Sawada, Yasuyuki, 2009. "How is suicide different in Japan?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 140-150, March.
    8. Andrés, Antonio R. & Halicioglu, Ferda & Yamamura, Eiji, 2011. "Socio-economic determinants of suicide in Japan," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 723-731.
    9. Eiji Yamamura, 2015. "Comparison of Social Capital's Effect on Consideration of Suicide between Urban and Rural Areas," ISER Discussion Paper 0933, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    10. Eiji Yamamura, 2010. "The different impacts of socio-economic factors on suicide between males and females," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(10), pages 1009-1012.
    11. Schaede Ulrike, 2013. "Sunshine and Suicides in Japan: revisiting the relevance of economic determinants of suicide," Contemporary Japan, De Gruyter, vol. 25(2), pages 105-126, August.
    12. Bussu, Anna & Detotto, Claudio & Sterzi, Valerio, 2013. "Social conformity and suicide," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 67-78.
    13. Ferdi Botha, 2012. "The Economics Of Suicide In South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 80(4), pages 526-552, December.
    14. Roberto Dell'Anno & Adalgiso Amendola, 2015. "Social Exclusion and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation in European Economies," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 274-301, June.
    15. Claudio Detotto & Valerio Sterzi, 2011. "The role of family in suicide rate in Italy," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(2), pages 1509-1519.
    16. Ross, Justin M. & Yakovlev, Pavel A. & Carson, Fatima, 2012. "Does state spending on mental health lower suicide rates?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 408-417.
    17. Antonio Rodriguez, 2006. "Inequality and Suicide Mortality: A Cross-Country Study," Development Research Working Paper Series 13/2006, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    18. Andrés, Antonio R. & Halicioglu, Ferda, 2010. "Determinants of suicides in Denmark: Evidence from time series data," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(2-3), pages 263-269, December.
    19. Armey, Laura E. & McNab, Robert M., 2018. "Expenditure decentralization and natural resources," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 52-61.
    20. Detken, Carsten & Adalid, Ramón, 2007. "Liquidity shocks and asset price boom/bust cycles," Working Paper Series 732, European Central Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:45:y:2013:i:c:p:175-186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.