Recessions and mortality in Spain, 1980-1997

The relationship between economic fluctuations and mortality is assessed with data from Spain during the years 1980-1997, when national unemployment oscillated between 7% and 24%. Mortality rates of the Spanish provinces are modeled in fixed-effect panel regressions as functions of the demographic structure and the economic conditions. Unemployment effects on general mortality, sex-specific mortality, and mortality for major causes of death are negative, i.e., death rates increase procyclically when joblessness diminishes in an economic expansion. Homicides and female suicides are only weakly related or unrelated to economic fluctuations, but male suicides escalate countercyclically during economic downturns.