Economic reform and mortality in the former Soviet Union: A study of the suicide epidemic in the 1990s

Male suicide rates in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic countries inc reased substantially in the early 1990s and are now the highest in the worl d. To what extent is this suicide epidemic explained by the macroeconomic i nstability experienced by these countries in that period? Fixed effects reg ressions across 22 transition economies indicate that male suicide rates ar e highly sensitive to the state of the macroeconomy, suggesting that the st eep and prolonged declines in GDP in the western countries of the former So viet Union may have been partly to blame for the suicide epidemic. Evidence also indicates that the general adult male mortality crisis in the region had a 'feedback' effect on suicide rates, with the loss of a spouse or frie nd - or declining life expectancy itself - contributing to rising suicide r ates. Female suicide rates, in contrast, are insensitive to the state of th e macroeconomy and are more strongly related to alcohol consumption. (C) 20 01 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.