Unemployment, Global Economic Crises and Suicides: Evidence from 21 OECD Countries

Abstract

This study explores age- and gender-specific suicide mortality due to unemployment and economic crises, for 21 OECD countries over the period 1960 to 2011. The findings indicate that a higher unemployment rate leads to an increase in suicides in almost all age groups. Further, using dataset on economic/financial crisis events, results show that, in general, these crises increase suicide rates. However, the evidence also shows that economic crises have no effect on those in the 45 to 64 years age group in terms of suicides. Further, we assessed whether suicide mortality can be attributed to a ‘crisis effect’ beyond that of unemployment. For males, we found a significant joint effect between crises and unemployment. Finally, we investigated the possible nonlinear threshold response of suicides to unemployment. We found that suicides among young males (< 45 years) are due to marked increases in unemployment in association with global economic crises.

Keywords: economic crises, suicide mortality, panel data, unemployment, threshold model

JEL Classification: C33, E24, G01, I10