The Economics of Suicide: Evidence from LMICs and HICs

Abstract

Suicide is an important global public health concern. This paper deals with the topic of suicide from an economic perspective. Thus, the study analyses the effect of key economic indicators on the suicide rate in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs). The empirical analysis is made by employing the search variable selection method and using two algorithms: AutoGets and Swapwise. The data source for our dependent variable and other search variables is the World Bank development indicators database. The time series for the LMICs and HICs extends from 2000 to 2019. The most influential effect on the suicide rate in LMICs has shown to be female unemployment and per capita health expenditure. Female unemployment appeared to be the key economic indicator for the changes in the suicide rate in HICs. Besides, male unemployment, per capita health expenditure as well as old-age dependency ratio were also found to be influential indicators for the changes in suicide rate in HICs. The empirical results confirm the presence of a strong inverse relationship between the suicide rate and the influential economic variables in LMICs. In regards to the link between suicide rate and the influential economic variables in HICs, mostly it was found a positive relationship, except for the old-age dependency ratio. The findings reflect a need for formulating effective suicide prevention strategies and policies that could better hand out with extreme financial agonies at an individual level.