Mortality Increases During Economic Upturns

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Christopher J Ruhm, Jefferson-Pilot Excellence Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: The conventional wisdom is that mortality falls when the economy temporarily improves and increases when it weakens. This strong apriori belief has engendered substantial attention to be paid to analyses indicating a countercyclical variation in deaths and excessive scepticism to countervailing evidence. However, this view is beginning to change as recent research, often using more sophisticated methodological designs than earlier studies, commonly finds that fatalities rise during economic upturns. =Increasing Mortality During Expansions of the US Economy, 1900–1996‘ by José Tapia Granados1 contributes to this new understanding by showing that the secular decline in US mortality accelerates during economic recessions and slows or reverses in expansions. His analysis utilizes time-series data on total deaths, as well as age-specific and cause-specific mortality.

Additional Information

Publication
International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 34, No. 6, December 2005, 1206-1211
Language: English
Date: 2005
Keywords
Mortality, Economic upturns

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