Income Shocks and Suicides: Causal Evidence From Indonesia

Abstract

We examine how income shocks affect the suicide rate in Indonesia. We use a difference-in-differences approach, exploiting the cash transfer's nationwide rollout, and corroborate the findings using a randomized experiment. Our estimates show that the cash transfers reduce the yearly suicide rate by 0.36 per 100,000 people, corresponding to an 18% decrease. Moreover, a different type of income shock, variability in agricultural productivity, also affects the suicide rate. The cash transfer program reduces the causal impact of the agricultural productivity shocks, suggesting an important role for policy interventions. Finally, we provide evidence for depression as a psychological mechanism.

The Relationship between Conflicts, Economic Shocks, and Death with Depression, Economic Activities, and Human Capital Investment in Nigeria

“…Adhvaryu et al (2016) similarly show that temperature shocks in utero increase depressive symptoms in adulthood in Africa. Finally, Christian, Hensel et al (2018) show that income shocks, via a randomized conditional cash transfer, have an effect on suicides in Indonesia.…”

Adaptation of evidence‐based suicide prevention strategies during and after theCOVID‐19 pandemic

“…Interventions which unconditionally provided substantial cash transfers to individuals or families have been found to have positive effects on educational participation and on some health outcomes, including mental health 72,73 . In Indonesia, a cash transfer program providing between $39 and $220 per person annually was found to reduce the yearly suicide rate by 0.36 per 100,000 people, corresponding to an 18% decrease 74 .…”

Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation

“…When it comes to the expected impacts of fetal stress exposure on birth outcomes and physical health in later life, we draw on the large existing literature that points to adverse short-and long-term effects of exposure to physical insults during the fetal period (see Almond and Currie 2011 for a review). 16 The evidence on 13 The considered age groups are 5-9; 10-17; 18-24; 25-34; 45-54; and 55-64. 14 In Sweden, schools are financed at the municipal level.…”

“…15 See Table 72 for anxiety and Table 74 for depression. 16 See also, e.g.,Van den Berg, Lindeboom, and Portrait the consequences of purely psychological stressors is more scarce, as studies that exploit variation from extreme and rare events like natural disasters and terrorist attacks are limited in their ability to separate the effects of in utero stress exposure from any postnatal responses, as well as from the physical health and economic insults associated with these events. 17 Our empirical methodology (described in detail in Section III) focuses on a nearly universal stressor designed to overcome these limitations.…”