Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/252211 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15087
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Though there is clinical evidence linking pollution induced inflammatory factors and major depression and suicide, no definitive study of risk in the community exists. In this study, we provide the first population-based estimates of the relationship between air pollution and suicide in the United States. Using detailed cause of death data from all death certificates in the U.S. between 2003 and 2010, we estimate the relationship between daily variation in air quality measured using NASA satellite data, and suicide rates. Using wind direction as an instrument for reducing potentially endogeneity and measurement error in daily pollution exposure, we find that a 1 μg/m3 increase in daily PM2.5 is associated with a 0.49 percent increase in daily suicides (a 19.3 percent increase). We also estimate the impact of days with high air pollution on contemporaneous suicide rates compared to other days in the same state-month, month-year, day of the week and county with lower air pollution, conditional on the same weather and total population. Estimates using 2SLS are larger and more robust, suggesting a bias towards zero arising from measurement error. Event study estimates further illustrate that contemporaneous pollution exposure matters more than exposure to pollution in previous weeks.
Subjects: 
air pollution
suicide
health
JEL: 
I10
Q52
Q53
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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