Work

Can Economic Policies Reduce Deaths of Despair?

Year: 2019

Type: report

Abstract: Do minimum wages and the EITC mitigate rising "deaths of despair?"We leverage state variation in these policies over time to estimate event study and difference-in-differences models of deaths due to drug overdose, suicide, and alcohol-related causes.Our causal models find no significant effects on drug or alcohol-related mortality, but do find significant reductions in nondrug suicides.A 10 percent minimum wage increase reduces non-drug suicides among loweducated adults by 2.7 percent; the comparable EITC figure is 3.0 percent.Placebo tests and event-study models support our causal research design.Increasing both policies by 10 percent would likely prevent a combined total of more than 700 suicides each year.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research

DOI: 10.3386/w25787

Authors: William Dow, Anna Godøy, Christopher Lowenstein, Michael Reich

Institutions: National Bureau of Economic Research, Statistics Norway, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Suicide and Self-Harm Studies

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, No poverty, Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funders: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

OpenAlex ID: W2941468858

Cites: 71

Cited by: 64

Related to: 10