Trends in alcohol consumption and associated illnesses. Some effects of economic changes.

Brenner, M. Harvey

doi:10.2105/ajph.65.12.1279

Cited by 193 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The effect of short-term economic fluctuations on the state of health in general and mortality in particular has found the interest of scholars since Brenner's (1973Brenner's ( , 1975Brenner's ( , 1979Brenner's ( , 1987Brenner's ( , 1995 path-breaking work. Brenner found with the help of time-series analysis that recessions are associated with deteriorating health in the United States, England and Wales and Sweden.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Recessions lower (some) mortality rates: evidence from Germany”

Neumayer

2004

Social Science & Medicine

161

211

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In his article with the provocative title "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?", Ruhm (2000) has found robust and consistent evidence that the total mortality rate, agespecific mortality rates as well as most specific mortality causes are pro-cyclical. His finding that high unemployment rates are associated with lower mortality and vice versa stands in stark contrast to Brenner's earlier work, who found the opposite effect, possibly after a time lag. Ruhm controls for state-specific effects in a panel of US states over the period 1972 to 1991, whereas Brenner's work is based on time-series analysis.Extending and improving upon Ruhm's original analysis, we analyse the effect of state unemployment and economic growth rates on mortality in the states of Germany over the period 1980 to 2000, both in a static and a dynamic econometric model. Controlling for state-specific effects, we find evidence that aggregate mortality rates for all age groups taken together as well as most specific age groups are lower in recessions. The same is true for mortality from cardiovascular diseases, pneumonia and influenza, motor vehicle accidents and suicides, but not necessarily for other specific mortality causes. In particular, there never is a statistically significant effect on homicides, other external effects and malignant neoplasms. There are also few differences apparent between the effect on male and female mortality. If we do not control for state-specific effects, then we often arrive at the opposite result with higher unemployment being associated with higher mortality. This suggests that a failure to control for time-invariant state-specific effects leads to omitted variable bias, which would erroneously suggest that mortality rates move counter-cyclically. Overall, we can confirm Ruhm's main finding for 2 another country: recessions lower some, but not all, mortality rates in the case of Germany.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Recessions lower (some) mortality rates: evidence from Germany”

Neumayer

2004

Social Science & Medicine

161

211

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“…Widely cited analyses of aggregate and time-series data by Brenner (1973Brenner ( , 1975Brenner ( , 1979Brenner ( , 1987Brenner ( , 1995 demonstrated an inverse relationship between unemployment rates and mortality rates, with mortality increasing in step with unemployment rates. Unemployment has been shown to induce stress, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and suicide (Kasl, Cobb, & Brooks, 1968;Platt,1984;Bjorklund, 1985;Townsend, Phillimore, & Beattie, 1988;Franks et al, 1991;Bartley, 1994;Morris, Cook, & Shaper, 1994;Wilkinson, 1996).…”

Section: Previous Research On Economic Cycles and Mortalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recessions, Poverty, and Mortality in the United States: 1993–2012

Gordon

Sommers

2016

American Journal of Health Economics

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Prior studies suggest that higher unemployment rates reduce mortality, but newer research suggests this relationship may have attenuated in recent decades. Moreover, individual-level evidence shows a negative effect of economic adversity on survival. We revisit this question using county-level data and two additional macroeconomic measures: poverty rates and median incomes. Examining county-level mortality among non-elderly adults from 1993-2012, we find that higher unemployment has modest negative impacts on mortality, in contrast to prior work using older state-level data. More notably, county-level poverty rates and lower median incomes produce larger and consistently negative effects on mortality, both in the short-term and also for several years afterwards. These findings are consistent across multiple causes of death and for different subgroups of adults. While previous research has found that higher unemployment may produce small beneficial effects on survival, our analysis using more recent and granular data suggests this relationship no longer holds, and other economic measures such as median income and poverty rates provide stronger evidence that adverse economic conditions lead to higher mortality.JEL Codes: E32, I10, I14, O15

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“…We obtain death rate per 1000 for males and females separately, as well as in total. For 1950For -1975, the source is Historical Statistics Canada series B18 (total), B16 (males), and B17 (female).…”

Section: Appendix Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brenner [15,18,19] used post Great Depression aggregate times series data to show that slowdowns in economic activity 2 Economics Research International were accompanied by increases in mortality rates, thus concluding that recessions are bad for one's health. Moreover, Brenner showed that deaths due to cardiovascular disease, suicide, homicide, infant mortality rates and admissions to mental hospitals rose during economic contractions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Short-Run and Long-Run Relationships between Mortality and the Business Cycle in Canada

Janko

Emery

Guenette

2013

Economics Research International

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This paper investigates the relationship between health and the business cycle for the Canadian economy. The majority of existing literature shows a procyclical relationship between death rates and indicators of the business cycle, suggesting that recessions are good for one's health. We use a time series error correction model to determine the short-run and long-run impacts of the unemployment rates on death rates. Our results indicate that temporary slowdowns in economic activity are associated with lower death rates. Moreover, once we stratify the data by sex, we find a long-run negative relationship between the unemployment rate and death rates for both sexes.

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Trends in alcohol consumption and associated illnesses. Some effects of economic changes.

Cited by 193 publications

References 14 publications

“Recessions lower (some) mortality rates: evidence from Germany”

“Recessions lower (some) mortality rates: evidence from Germany”

Recessions, Poverty, and Mortality in the United States: 1993–2012

The Short-Run and Long-Run Relationships between Mortality and the Business Cycle in Canada

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