title: Unemployment and Suicide Mortality: Evidence from Regional Panel Data in Europe.
abstract: This paper addresses the influence of economic activity on suicide mortality in Europe. To this end, it employs a new panel data set of 275 regions in 29 countries over the period 1999-2010. The results suggest that unemployment does have a significantly positive influence on suicides. In line with economic theory, this influence varies among gender and age groups. Men of working age are particularly sensitive, while old-age suicide mortality (older than 65 years old) hardly responds to unemployment. Moreover, real economic growth negatively affects the suicide rates of working-age men. The results withstand several robustness checks, such as sample variations, and after controlling for serial and spatial autocorrelation.
authors.affiliation: Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Breuer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D057172:Economic Recession; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009026:Mortality; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014887:Weather
chemical_list: D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate
keywords: panel data; suicide; unemployment