Citation

Noghanibehambari H, Tavassoli N, Noghani F. Middle East Development Journal 2021; 13(2): 335-346.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021)

DOI

10.1080/17938120.2021.1959830

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the unemployment rate and suicide rate using data from all provinces of Iran and over the years 2009-2015. We exploit the variations in national industry-specific labor demand changes and province-level industry-composition as plausibly exogenous shocks to the province-level employment growth. Using a 2SLS-IV approach, we find that a 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate is associated with 0.72 and 0.68 higher incidences of suicide attempt and death per 100,000 population, respectively. Although both OLS and 2SLS-IV approach reveals consistent and statistically significant results, the marginal effects of the 2SLS-IV approach are larger, implying that Endogeneity issues underbias the OLS results of the relationship between unemployment rates and suicide rates. © 2021 Economic Research Forum.

Language: en

Keywords

mental health; suicide; Iran; Unemployment; panel data