Actual versus ‘natural’ rates of suicide: Evidence from the USA

Collins, Alan; Fan, Jingwen; Mahabir, Aruneema

doi:10.1016/j.econmod.2021.105705

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Following Thornton and Innes (1989), Table 5 shows the correct semi-log conversion for each state over the periods: 1990, 2005 and 2019. Results herein are comparable to those found by Collins et al (2022). **Significant at the < 5% level.…”

Section: Strictly Positive Suicide Ratesupporting

confidence: 87%

“…The first part of this examination follows the panel data methods of Kunce andAnderson (2001-2002) and Collins et al (2022) to test the positive suicide rate proposition. Panel data specifications can provide accurate measures of, and controls for, most socioeconomic effects on suicide rates without requiring the collection of vast data sets on the characteristics (many of which are unobservable) of states.…”

Section: Strictly Positive Suicide Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

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A 'Natural' Suicide Rate, Hysteresis or Suicide Persistence? Evidence from U.S. State Level Panel Data,1980-2020

Kunce¹

2022

Journal of Statistical and Econometric Methods

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A growing literature probing the natural suicide rate hypothesis appears to have split into two factions. The first focuses on testing the strictly positive rate premise using 'ideal' socioeconomic conditioned empirically predicted values. The second examines the stationarity of the suicide rate time series. By exploiting an expansive (4 decade) panel of U.S. state-level suicide rates and characteristics, this paper aims to debit the inventories of both factions of the literature. Regarding the first, we provide a long-panel (3 decade) test of the strictly positive rate hypothesis where results reinforce the growing consensus that, even under the most pristine socioeconomic state, suicide occurrence endures. Additionally, we test the stationarity of U.S. suicide rates over time. Using panel methods that allow for cross-sectional dependence and structural deviations, we find strong evidence of non-stationarity (unit root) for the common factors of suicide rates in the U.S. This latter finding casts doubt on the usefulness of the natural suicide rate hypothesis. Keywords: Natural suicide rate, Unit root, Panel data. JEL Classifications: C32, C33, R12.

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Section: Strictly Positive Suicide Ratesupporting

confidence: 87%