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Spillover effects of minimum wages on suicide mortality: Evidence from Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Yuji Mizushima

    (Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University, 1-104 Totsukamachi, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 169-8050, Japan)

  • Haruko Noguchi

    (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, 1-104 Totsukamachi, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 169- 8050, Japan)

Abstract

This study examines the spillover effects of minimum wages on suicide mortality in Japan using vital statistics data from 2000 to 2016. The possibility of competing income and unemployment effects motivates our research question as an empirical one. Our difference-in-differences regression framework exploits a minimum wage policy reform in Japan that was implemented in 2008, which mandated prefectures to incrementally increase their minimum wages to local living wages. The revision contributed to a decrease in male suicides by 4.58% that is concentrated among age groups with greater exposure to minimum wages. A supplementary analysis of the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions (2004-2016) suggests that increases in earned income in the absence of sizable adverse effects on labor at the intensive and extensive margins among low-wage earners could be an important mechanism driving these results.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuji Mizushima & Haruko Noguchi, 2021. "Spillover effects of minimum wages on suicide mortality: Evidence from Japan," Working Papers 2105, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wap:wpaper:2105
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Well-being; Suicide; Minimum wage; Living wage; Japan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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