Cornelius Christian, Brock University - March 13, 2019

March 13, 2019

Cornelius Christian, Brock University, will present a seminar at 4:00 PM in Arts 807

Seminar Title: 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 roll-out, and corroborate the findings using a randomized experiment embedded in the program roll-out. Our estimates from the nationwide roll-out show that the cash transfers reduce the yearly suicide rate by 0.36 per 100,000 people, corresponding to an 18 percent 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 a psychological mechanism by showing that agricultural productivity shocks affect depression.

This seminar is part of the Department of Economics Seminar Series. Everyone is welcome.