چکیده:
Suicide is a well-known public health problem in the United States.
Macroeconomic conditions, among many other factors, because of their impacts
on psychological well-being of individuals, are thought to be linked to suicide
attempts. However, previous research onthe relationship between suicide rates and
macroeconomic conditions, especially that of labor market conditions, has resulted
into ambiguous and often contradictory results. This paper attempts to provide
a detailed disaggregated econometric analysis on the link between labor market
conditions and female suicide rates in the United States. Using a state-level panel
data of 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia between 1979 and 2004, this
paper finds that labor market deteriorations (i.e. higher rates of unemployment,
larger deviations of unemployment rate from its trend, and greater volatilities in
the overall rate of unemployment), are correlated with only the suicide rates of
the prime working-age women (i.e. 35-64 years old). Moreover, the results provide
some evidence that female suicide rates in the United States are also positively
correlated with higher female labor force participation rates
خلاصه ماشینی:
"Given that psychiatric disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, incarceration, family suicide history, history of violence and physical or sexual abuse, family disruption (such as divorce or loss of loved ones), major injury or illness, abrupt social or economic changes, feelings of insecurity, excessive stress, and hopelessness are among suicide risk factors (Moscicki, 2001; National Institute of Mental Health, 2009;and United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2001) the recent sudden and rapid hike in America’s suicide rates may point to significant declines in human and social well-being in the American society.
Also see Wisman (2008) for a detailed review of the literature on the link between unemployment International Journal of Women’s Research significant effects of macroeconomic conditions on the mental health of individu- als and also the important link between mental health and suicide,13all previous economic studies of suicide have controlled for output levels per capita and unem- ployment rates (Chuang and Huang, 1997;Hamermesh and Soss, 1974;Jungeilges and Kirchgassner, 2002;Kunce and Anderson, 2002;Minoiu and Andres, 2008; Noh, 2009; Andres, 2005;Ruhm, 2000; Yang, 1992, and Yang and Stack, 1992).
Therefore, in order to examine the link between the uncertainty in the labor market and suicide rates in the United States, the regression models in this study also include the variance of the seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rates for all panels.
Based on the above, it is therefore likely that spatial or International Journal of Women’s Research temporal variations of per capita alcohol consumption be partially driven by alcohol consumption of elderly women, which could in turn explain the robust and positive correlation between the levels of alcohol consumption and the suicide rates of this group (Markowitz, Chatterji, and Kaestner, 2003)."