IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v296y2022ics0277953622000363.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What do we know about the impact of economic recessions on mortality inequalities? A critical review

Author

Listed:
  • Benach, Joan
  • Padilla-Pozo, Álvaro
  • Martínez-Herrera, Eliana
  • Molina-Betancur, Juan Camilo
  • Gutiérrez, Manuela
  • Pericàs, Juan M.
  • Gutiérrez-Zamora Navarro, Mariana
  • Zografos, Christos

Abstract

Historically, there has been a debate on the effects of recessions on population health, and especially on mortality and its distribution across different social groups. This paper contributes to this discussion by means of a critical review of the research on the impact of economic recessions on mortality inequalities in the period 1980–2020. We analyzed 19 studies according to their mortality outcomes, socioeconomic indicators, design, analysis, and main findings. Twelve studies focused on European countries or urban areas, two on Asian countries, two on Russia, one on Asia and Europe, one on the USA, and one in Somalia. Five articles included cross-country comparisons (four between European countries or cities and one between Asian and European countries). The Great Recession of 2008 was the most researched economic crisis, followed by country-specific crises in the 90s, the fall of the Soviet Union, and some crises during the 80s. Most studies (n = 15) showed an overall or partial increase in mortality inequalities after an economic recession. However, two papers found a decrease in mortality inequalities due to the worsening of the health of the upper and middle classes, one article found a decrease in inequalities due to a general improvement in population health, and a study found a “slow-down” effect of pre-existent mortality inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Benach, Joan & Padilla-Pozo, Álvaro & Martínez-Herrera, Eliana & Molina-Betancur, Juan Camilo & Gutiérrez, Manuela & Pericàs, Juan M. & Gutiérrez-Zamora Navarro, Mariana & Zografos, Christos, 2022. "What do we know about the impact of economic recessions on mortality inequalities? A critical review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:296:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622000363
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114733
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622000363
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114733?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. Laeven, Luc & Valencia, Fabian, 2020. "Systemic Banking Crises Database: A Timely Update in COVID-19 Times," CEPR Discussion Papers 14569, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Henrik Brønnum-Hansen & Mikkel Baadsgaard & Mette Eriksen & Karen Andersen-Ranberg & Bernard Jeune, 2015. "Educational inequalities in health expectancy during the financial crisis in Denmark," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(8), pages 927-935, December.
    3. Azarova, Aytalina & Irdam, Darja & Gugushvili, Alexi & Fazekas, Mihaly & Scheiring, Gábor & Horvat, Pia & Stefler, Denes & Kolesnikova, Irina & Popov, Vladimir & Szelenyi, Ivan & Stuckler, David & Mar, 2017. "The effect of rapid privatisation on mortality in mono-industrial towns in post-Soviet Russia: a retrospective cohort study," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 73617, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Katrien Vanthomme & Sylvie Gadeyne, 2019. "Unemployment and cause-specific mortality among the Belgian working-age population: The role of social context and gender," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, May.
    5. Luc Laeven & Fabian Valencia, 2020. "Systemic Banking Crises Database II," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 68(2), pages 307-361, June.
    6. Snyder, Hannah, 2019. "Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 333-339.
    7. Murphy, M. & Bobak, M. & Nicholson, A. & Rose, R. & Marmot, M., 2006. "The widening gap in mortality by educational level in the Russian Federation, 1980-2001," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(7), pages 1293-1299.
    8. Stefano Scarpetta & Anne Sonnet & Thomas Manfredi, 2010. "Rising Youth Unemployment During The Crisis: How to Prevent Negative Long-term Consequences on a Generation?," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 106, OECD Publishing.
    9. Aden, A. S. & Omar, M. M. & Omar, H. M. & Högberg, U. & Persson, L. Å. & Wall, S., 1997. "Excess female mortality in rural Somalia--Is inequality in the household a risk factor?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 709-715, March.
    10. Stijn Claessens & M. Ayhan Kose, 2013. "Financial Crises: Explanations, Types and Implications," CAMA Working Papers 2013-06, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    11. José A. Tapia Granados & Edward L. Ionides, 2017. "Population health and the economy: Mortality and the Great Recession in Europe," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 219-235, December.
    12. Johan P. Mackenbach & José Rubio Valverde & Barbara Artnik & Matthias Bopp & Henrik Brønnum-Hansen & Patrick Deboosere & Ramune Kalediene & Katalin Kovács & Mall Leinsalu & Pekka Martikainen & Gwenn M, 2018. "Trends in health inequalities in 27 European countries," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 115(25), pages 6440-6445, June.
    13. Xu, Xin, 2013. "The business cycle and health behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 126-136.
    14. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2003. "Good times make you sick," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 637-658, July.
    15. Shujie Yao & Jing Zhang, 2011. "On Economic Theory and Recovery of the Financial Crisis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34, pages 764-777, May.
    16. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2015. "Recessions, healthy no more?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 17-28.
    17. Edwards, Ryan, 2008. "Who is hurt by procyclical mortality?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2051-2058, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Colombo, Emilio & Rotondi, Valentina & Stanca, Luca, 2018. "Macroeconomic conditions and health: Inspecting the transmission mechanism," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 29-37.
    2. Birgisdóttir, Kristín Helga & Hauksdóttir, Arna & Ruhm, Christopher & Valdimarsdóttir, Unnur Anna & Ásgeirsdóttir, Tinna Laufey, 2020. "The effect of the economic collapse in Iceland on the probability of cardiovascular events," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    3. Federico Belotti & Joanna Kopinska & Alessandro Palma & Andrea Piano Mortari, 2022. "Health status and the Great Recession. Evidence from electronic health records," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(8), pages 1770-1799, August.
    4. Cristina Bellés‐Obrero & Sergi Jiménez‐Martín & Judit Vall‐Castello, 2016. "Bad Times, Slimmer Children?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(S2), pages 93-112, November.
    5. van Dijk, Mathijs A. & van Dalen, Hendrik P. & Hyde, Martin, 2020. "Who bears the brunt? The impact of banking crises on younger and older workers," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    6. Garth Heutel & Christopher J. Ruhm, 2016. "Air Pollution and Procyclical Mortality," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 667-706.
    7. Lizhong Peng & Jie Chen & Xiaohui Guo, 2022. "Macroeconomic conditions and health‐related outcomes in the United States: A metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area‐level analysis between 2004 and 2017," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 3-20, January.
    8. Sarah A. Burgard & Jennifer A. Ailshire & Lucie Kalousova, 2013. "The Great Recession and Health," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 650(1), pages 194-213, November.
    9. Shu-Ling Lin & Xiao Jin, 2023. "Does ESG Predict Systemic Banking Crises? A Computational Economics Model of Early Warning Systems with Interpretable Multi-Variable LSTM based on Mixture Attention," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, January.
    10. Wang, Qing & Tapia Granados, José A., 2019. "Economic growth and mental health in 21st century China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 387-395.
    11. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2015. "Recessions, healthy no more?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 17-28.
    12. Ferreira, Ernesto R. & Monteiro, João D. & Manso, José R. Pires, 2018. "Are economic crises age and gender neutral? Evidence from European Union mortality data," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 69-77.
    13. David M. Cutler & Noémie Sportiche, 2022. "Economic Crises and Mental Health: Effects of the Great Recession on Older Americans," NBER Working Papers 29817, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2016. "Health Effects of Economic Crises," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(S2), pages 6-24, November.
    15. Nguyen, Thanh Cong & Castro, Vítor & Wood, Justine, 2022. "A new comprehensive database of financial crises: Identification, frequency, and duration," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    16. Chulhee Lee & Kyeongbae Kim, 2017. "Changing Relationship between Unemployment and Mortality in South Korea," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1630-1636, December.
    17. Hui-Kuan Tseng & Reed Olsen, 2016. "The U.S. health production function: evidence from 2001 to 2009," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 51-64, March.
    18. Haaland, Venke Furre & Telle, Kjetil, 2015. "Pro-cyclical mortality across socioeconomic groups and health status," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 248-258.
    19. He, Monica M., 2016. "Driving through the Great Recession: Why does motor vehicle fatality decrease when the economy slows down?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1-11.
    20. Jofre-Bonet, Mireia & Serra-Sastre, Victoria & Vandoros, Sotiris, 2018. "The impact of the Great Recession on health-related risk factors, behaviour and outcomes in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 213-225.

    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:socmed:v:296:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622000363. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.