Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/189530 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Development Research Working Paper Series No. 13/2006
Publisher: 
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD), La Paz
Abstract: 
This paper tests whether economic inequality is related to suicide mortality. Using an unbalanced panel of 40 countries for the period 1947-2001 allows us to control for the effect of unobserved factors that may have an impact on suicide rates. Our results indicate that there is a statistically insignificant positive effect of inequality on the incidence of suicide. The latter result seems to be robust to a number of specification issues explored in a sensitivity analysis. Our results also suggest that female labour participation has a significant positive effect on the total (males and female) suicide rates, supporting the sociological argument that the role conflict dominates more than the role expansion. Contrary to the total and male suicide rates findings, the fertility rate matters in explaining female suicide rates. Finally, in contrast to previous studies, suicide rates were not sensitive to income levels, divorce rates and alcohol consumption.
Subjects: 
Inequality
suicide
panel data
autocorrelation
JEL: 
I12
N30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.