Your job or your life? The uncertain relationship of unemployment and mortality

Abstract

Contrary to the epidemiological literature, some studies find that increases in unemployment decrease mortality. Using US state level data on unemployment, mortality and other covariates for 1974 to 2003, this paper revisits this issue by, first, allowing for transitory and permanent effects of unemployment and, second, by allowing for cross-panel correlations. The results show that most mortality measures increase with contemporaneous unemployment and indicate that increases in long-run unemployment increase mortality.