title: Why is There so Much Controversy Regarding the Population Health Impact of the Great Recession? Reflections on Three Case Studies.
abstract: In the aftermath of the Great Recession, public health scholars have grown increasingly interested in studying the health consequences of macroeconomic change. Reflecting existing debates on the nature of this relationship, research on the effects of the recent economic crisis has sparked considerable controversy. On the one hand there is evidence to support the notion that macroeconomic downturns are associated with positive health outcomes. On the other hand, a growing number of studies warn that the current economic crisis can be expected to pose serious problems for the public's health. This article contributes to this debate through a review of recent evidence from three case studies: Iceland, Spain, and Greece. It shows that the economic crisis has negatively impacted some population health indicators (e.g., mental health) in all three countries, but especially in Greece. Available evidence defies deterministic conclusions, including increasingly "conventional" claims about economic downturns improving life expectancy and reducing mortality. While our results echo previous research in finding that the relationship between economic crises and population health is complex, they also indicate that this complexity is not arbitrary. On the contrary, changing social and political contexts provide meaningful, if partial, explanations for the perplexing nature of recent empirical findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology 2, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Leioa, Spain OPIK-Research Group on Social Determinants of Health and Demographic Change amaia.bacigalupe@ehu.eus.
authors.forename: Amaia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bacigalupe
authors.affiliation: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Faraz Vahid
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Shahidi
authors.affiliation: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Bloomberg School of Nursing, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Department of Public Health Sciences, Korea University.
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Muntaner
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology 2, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Leioa, Spain OPIK-Research Group on Social Determinants of Health and Demographic Change.
authors.forename: Unai
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.affiliation: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona 08023, Spain Ciber de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, 28029, Spain Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona 08003, Spain Institut de Recerca Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), Barcelona 08025, Spain.
authors.forename: Carme
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borrell
mesh_terms: D057172:Economic Recession / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014943:Global Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006115:Greece; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011632:Public Assistance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D013030:Spain; D013997:Time Factors; D014798:Vital Statistics
keywords: Greece; Iceland; Spain; economic crisis; economic recession; population health