“…Unemployment is also associated with a higher risk of premature death (Brenner et al, 2011;Bloemen et al, 2018;d'Errico et al, 2021;Vodopivec et al, 2021). Among the studies that use macroeconomic indicators to explain drug use and harms, the vast majority of the literature uses unemployment as as proxy for assessing economic recessions affecting households and individuals (Dávalos et al, 2012;Nagelhout et al, 2017;Carpenter et al, 2017;Hollingsworth et al, 2017;Ayllón & Ferreira-Batista, 2018;Martin & Vall, 2016;Palling & Vall, 2017;Bosque-Prous et al, 2015;Kaiser et al, 2017). Unemployment is commonly measured by unemployment rates: the number of persons who are not employed (aged 15 to 74) as a percentage of the total population.…”