• Nikolaos Antonakakis and Alan Collins.
• University of Portsmouth, Economics and Finance Subject Group, Portsmouth, Business School, Portland Street, Portsmouth PO1 3DE, United Kingdom; Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics, Institute for International Economics, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, Austria; Webster Vienna Private University, Department of Business and Management, Praterstrasse 23, 1020 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: nikolaos.antonakakis@port.ac.uk.
• Soc Sci Med. 2015 Nov 1; 145: 63-78.

AbstractWhile linkages between some macroeconomic phenomena and suicides in some countries have been explored, only two studies, hitherto, have established a causal relationship between fiscal austerity and suicide, albeit in a single country. The aim of this study is to provide the first systematic multiple-country evidence of a causal relationship of fiscal austerity on time-, gender-, and age-specific suicide mortality across five Eurozone peripheral countries, namely Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain over the period 1968-2012, while controlling for various socioeconomic differences. The impact of fiscal adjustments is found to be gender-, age- and time-specific. Specifically, fiscal austerity has short-, medium- and long-run suicide increasing effects on the male population in the 65-89 age group. A 1% reduction in government spending is associated with a 1.38%, 2.42% and 3.32% increase in the short-, medium- and long-run, respectively, of male suicides rates in the 65-89 age group in the Eurozone periphery. These results are highly robust to alternative measures of fiscal austerity. Improved labour market institutions help mitigate the negative effects of fiscal austerity on suicide mortality. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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