To Be or Not to Be During Recession: Do Economic Fluctuations Have an Influence on the Suicide Mortality Rate?

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of economic upturns and downturns on suicide mortality rate of men in Russian regions in the period from 2006 to 2013. The author uses real GRP per head, Gini coefficient, alcohol sales, demographic burden (and squared), birth rate, unemployment rate, GRP growth rate (current and lagged), number of physicians and divorce rate as independent variables in fixed effects models. In result the hypothesis of the role of economic fluctuations confirms. In addition, demographic burden and birth rate are significant for suicide behavior. Moreover, this paper reflects the difference between urban and rural population in terms of significance of variables and shows the double effect that demographic burden cause to the suicide behavior.