Citation

Ruiz Sánchez G. Econ. Lett. 2021; 207: e110014.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110014

PMID

34548722

Abstract

This paper uses 2018-2020 prefecture-month-year, gender-month-year, and age group-month-year level data on suicide rates in Japan to document how suicide rates are evolving during the COVID-19 pandemic. I use a monthly event study design to study changes in suicide rates surrounding Japan's COVID-19 state of emergency and to trace out monthly changes in suicide rates during the first 11 months of 2020 relative to 2018-2019. I find that monthly suicide rates during the pandemic started increasing meaningfully in June-July 2020. I find that women experienced greater increases in suicide rates than men, relative to their 2018-2019 average suicide rate, and that women experienced the largest increase in suicide rates in October 2020. I also find descriptive evidence that in terms of suicide, individuals under 30 years old were faring worse during the pandemic.

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide; Japan; COVID-19; Suicide rates