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This paper examines the causal effect of job loss on overall and cause-specific mortality. Using linked employer-employee register data, we identified the job losses due to all establishment closures in Sweden in 1987 and 1988. Hence, we have extended the case study approach, which has dominated the plant closure literature, and also been able to remedy most weaknesses associated with previous studies. We found that the overall mortality risk for men was increased by 44 percent during the first four years following job loss. For women and in the longer run we found no effects. The short-run excess mortality was mainly attributed to increased risk of suicides and alcohol-related causes of death. For both sexes, the increase in suicides was about twofold for both men and women, while the increase in alcohol-related causes of death was somewhat less.JEL Classification: I12, J63, J65

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The paper presents the Swedish institutional setting, documents basic stylised facts about fixed‐term contracts, and discusses the causes of their increased prevalence. Open‐ended and temporary employment exhibit strikingly different cyclical behaviour with temporary employment being more volatile. A recession is associated with an initial decline in temporary employment followed by a sharp rise from the trough to the end of the recession. We argue that the severe recession of the 1990s is a major factor behind the rise in temporary work in Sweden. Adverse macroeconomic conditions make firms more prone to offer fixed‐term contracts and workers more willing to accept them.

This paper examines the causal effect of job loss on overall and cause-specific mortality. Using linked employer-employee register data, we identified the job losses due to all establishment closures in Sweden in 1987 and 1988. Hence, we have extended the case study approach, which has dominated the plant closure literature, and also been able to remedy most weaknesses associated with previous studies. We found that the overall mortality risk for men was increased by 44 percent during the first four years following job loss. For women and in the longer run we found no effects. The short-run excess mortality was mainly attributed to increased risk of suicides and alcohol-related causes of death. For both sexes, the increase in suicides was about twofold for both men and women, while the increase in alcohol-related causes of death was somewhat less.JEL Classification: I12, J63, J65