Citation

Kennelly B, Garvey E. Psychiatr. Danub. 2006; 18(Suppl 1): 136.

Affiliation

National University of Ireland, Economics Department, NUI, Galway, Ireland. brendan.kennelly@nuigalway.ie.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Facultas Universitatis Studiorum Zagrabiensis - Danube Symposion of Psychiatry)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16964120

Abstract

This paper analyses the socio-economic determinants of national suicide rates. Panel estimation techniques have been used with international data and national regional data to test the effects of a variety of social and economic variables on suicide rates. This paper tries to improve on the specifications used in previous models. We take account of the time series properties of the data in our empirical work. We found that it was plausible that the four designated I(1) independent variables (Gini, unemployment, GDP per/capita and alcohol consumption) were cointegrated with suicide rates. The results of the cointegrating model suggest that income inequality is an important determinant of suicide for men in OECD countries, as is alcohol consumption. GDP per capita is important for both sexes.

Language: en