IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aep/anales/4714.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

School Calendar and Suicides: Evidence for Argentina

Author

Listed:
  • Cantero Lara Sofía

Abstract

In this work I examine the impact of the school calendar on suicides in adolescents (10-19 years) in a developing country -Argentina-. To do this, I use a regression discontinuity design based on suicide administrative data that allows me to exploit the temporal and geographical variability in the start date of the school calendar. The results confirm the existence of a negative impact of the school calendar on adolescent suicide in Argentina. In the days after the beginning of the school year, the number of deaths by suicide is reduced by 35% in relation to the previous days. The mechanism analysis, which exploits the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, shows that the presence of parents in the household operates as a protective factor that reduces the number of suicides. These results are robust against age placebos (i.e., there are no differences in the number of suicides between older cohorts who presumably have already finished their school years) and temporal placebos (i.e., there are no differences when considering dates other than the actual school start date). These findings have important implications for educational policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Cantero Lara Sofía, 2024. "School Calendar and Suicides: Evidence for Argentina," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4714, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
  • Handle: RePEc:aep:anales:4714
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://aaep.org.ar/works/works2024/4714.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher Carpenter, 2004. "Heavy alcohol use and youth suicide: Evidence from tougher drunk driving laws," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4), pages 831-842.
    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. Monica Deza, 2015. "The Effects of Alcohol on the Consumption of Hard Drugs: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, 1997," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 419-438, April.
    2. Cuffe, Harold E. & Gibbs, Christopher G., 2017. "The effect of payday lending restrictions on liquor sales," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 132-145.
    3. Anderson, D. Mark & Rees, Daniel I. & Sabia, Joseph J., 2012. "High on Life? Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide," IZA Discussion Papers 6280, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. repec:oup:apecpp:v:40:y:2018:i:3:p:461-481. is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Kai Barron & Charles D. H. Parry & Debbie Bradshaw & Rob Dorrington & Pam Groenewald & Ria Laubscher & Richard Matzopoulos, 2024. "Alcohol, Violence, and Injury-Induced Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(4), pages 938-955, July.
    6. Nicolai Brachowicz & Judit Vall Castello, 2019. "Is changing the minimum legal drinking age an effective policy tool?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(12), pages 1483-1490, December.
    7. Borgschulte, Mark & Corredor-Waldron, Adriana & Marshall, Guillermo, 2018. "A path out: Prescription drug abuse, treatment, and suicide," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 169-184.
    8. Carpenter, Christopher, 2005. "Youth alcohol use and risky sexual behavior: evidence from underage drunk driving laws," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 613-628, May.
    9. Lindo, Jason M. & Swensen, Isaac D. & Waddell, Glen R., 2013. "Alcohol and student performance: Estimating the effect of legal access," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 22-32.
    10. Hansen, Benjamin & Lang, Matthew, 2011. "Back to school blues: Seasonality of youth suicide and the academic calendar," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 850-861, October.
    11. Benjamin Hansen & Joseph J. Sabia & Jessamyn Schaller, 2024. "In-Person Schooling and Youth Suicide: Evidence from School Calendars and Pandemic School Closures," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 59(S), pages 227-255.
    12. Jaesang Sung & Qihua Qiu & Will Davis & Rusty Tchernis, 2022. "Design and Application of an Area-Level Suicide Risk Index with Spatial Correlation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 77-104, May.
    13. Cuffe, Harold E. & Gibbs, Christopher G., 2017. "The effect of payday lending restrictions on liquor sales," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 132-145.
    14. Cooper, James C. & Wright, Joshua D., 2012. "Alcohol, antitrust, and the 21st Amendment: An empirical examination of post and hold laws," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 379-392.
    15. Christopher Carpenter & Carlos Dobkin, 2011. "The Minimum Legal Drinking Age and Public Health," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 133-156, Spring.
    16. Zheng, Emily Yiying, 2018. "Can technology really help to reduce underage drinking? New evidence on the effects of false ID laws with scanner provisions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 102-112.
    17. Kairi Kõlves & Kate M. Chitty & Rachmania Wardhani & Airi Värnik & Diego de Leo & Katrina Witt, 2020. "Impact of Alcohol Policies on Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-26, September.
    18. Christopher Carpenter & Carlos Dobkin, 2009. "The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Mortality: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from the Minimum Drinking Age," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 164-182, January.
    19. Christopher S. Carpenter, 2005. "Heavy Alcohol Use and the Commission of Nuisance Crime: Evidence from Underage Drunk Driving Laws," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 267-272, May.
    20. Philip J. Cook & Jan Ostermann & Frank A. Sloan, 2005. "Are Alcohol Excise Taxes Good For Us? Short and Long-Term Effects on Mortality Rates," NBER Working Papers 11138, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Teltser, Keith & Lennon, Conor & Burgdorf, Jacob, 2021. "Do ridesharing services increase alcohol consumption?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:aep:anales:4714. 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: Juan Manuel Quintero (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeppea.html .

    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.