Air Quality and Suicide / Claudia Persico, Dave E. Marcotte.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Persico, Claudia.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Marcotte, Dave E.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w30626.

NBER working paper series no. w30626

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2022.

Summary:

We conduct the first-ever large-scale study of the relationship between air pollution and suicide using detailed cause of death data from all death certificates in the U.S. between 2003 and 2010. Using wind direction as an instrument for daily pollution exposure, we find that a 1 μg/m3 increase in daily PM2.5 is associated with a 0.49% increase in daily suicides and 0.171 more suicide-related hospitalizations (a 50% increase). Estimates using 2SLS are larger and more robust, suggesting a bias towards zero arising from measurement error. Event study estimates further illustrate that contemporaneous pollution exposure matters more than exposure to pollution in previous weeks.

Notes:

Print version record

November 2022.