1. Group 4 Shelly Matushevski Karen Pavlisko Bennett Cowie Matt Morrison November 23, 2009

2. Introduction Can money buy happiness? Do times of economic hardship affect the rates of suicide in the United States? Weakening economy Rising unemployment rates Slow GDP growth Spill over onto an individual’s mental health Is there a direct relationship between the economy and suicide rates? =

3. Theory One may speculate there is a relationship between an economy in recession and the depletion of a person’s mental health Spurred by rising unemployment rates, falling profits of businesses, and fear of bankruptcy for businesses and individuals Does worry (about economic issues) lead to stress, then lead to depression, and then maybe even onto suicide? One might wonder whether or not the suicide rate is in fact related to the business cycle

4. Method Use of economic research related to the economies affect on suicide rates Excel spreadsheets constructed with data from reliable sources to create a useable data set in SAS Importation of raw data into SAS Analysis of data in SAS to determine trends between suicides and recessions

5. Research Findings Ethnic and Sex Differences in Suicide Rates Relative to Major Depression in the United States Antidepressants and Suicide Risk in the United States, 1985-1999 Does unemployment increase suicide rates? The OECD Panel Evidence Economic Theory of Suicide Happiness and Economic Performance The Economy and Suicide: a Time-Series Study of the U.S.A.

6. Research Findings Economic data was compared to three socio- demographic factors that can cause depression Low income Unemployment Disrupted marriages Males from all ethnic groups have higher suicide rates than females Women were twice as likely to be suffering from depression due to the three socio-demographic factors Victims undergo major depression before time of death

7. Results -the regression line is shown graphing the suicide rate dependent upon changes in GDP. -p-value =.1350, much larger than accepted alpha of.05 -R 2 value=.0907 The R 2 -value represents how well the regression line is able to approximate the actual data. -Very weak relationship

8. Results -regression line is shown graphing suicide rate dependent upon the unemployment rate -p-value =.0007, smaller than accepted alpha of.05 -R 2 value also shows the trend is much more significant at.3885 -Useful model

9. Results -suicide rates as a whole steadily decline for a 15 year period beginning in 1986 -Between 1990 to 1992 rates in suicide decreased while the unemployment rate increased severely -Appears to be a period of lag. Between 1983 and 1986, unemployment rates fell, suicide rates actually rose

10. References Grunebaum, Michael, Steven Ellis, Shuhua Li, Maria Oquendo, and J. John Mann."Antidepressants and Suicide Risk in the United States, 1985-1999." Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. November 2004. http://excalibur.cpmc.columbia.edu/reprints/Grunebaum%20et%20al%20JCP%202003.pdf (accessed November 5, 2009). Hamermesh, Daniel, and Neal Soss. "An Economic Theory of Suicide." The Journal of Political Economy. February 1974. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1830901?seq=1 (accessed November 5, 2009). Noh, Yong-Hwan. "Does Unemployment Increase Suicide Rates? The OECD Panel Evidence.“ Journal of Economic Psychology. August 2009. http://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/Noh_Yong- Hwan.pdf?issn=01674870&issue=v30i0004&article=575_duisrtope (accessed November 5, 2009).http://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/Noh_Yong- Oquendo, Maria, Steven Ellis, Steven Greenwald, Kevin Malone, Myrna Weissman, and J. John Mann. Ethnic and Sex Differences in Suicide Rates Relative to Major Depression in the United States. October 2001. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/158/10/1652#SEC2 (accessed November 5, 2009). Oswald, Andrew. "Happiness and Economic Performance." The Economic Journal. 1997. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2957911 (accessed November 5, 2009 ). Ruhm, Christopher. "Are Recessions good for your Health?" The Quarterly Journal of Economics. May 2000. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2587005?&Search=yes&term=recessions&term=suicide&list=hide&searchUri=% 2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Dsuicide%2Band%2Brecessions%26f0%3Dall%26c0%3DAND%26q 1%3D%26f1%3Dall%26c1%3DAND%26q2%3D%26f2%3Dall%26c2%3DAND%26q3%3D%26f3% (accessed November 5, 2009). http://www.jstor.org/stable/2587005?&Search=yes&term=recessions&term=suicide&list=hide&searchUri=% Yang, Bijou. “The economy and suicide: a time-series study of the U.S.A.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, volume 51, no. 1 January 1992 (pp. 87-99)