TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Can Labor Market Policies Reduce Deaths of Despair?
JO  - Journal of health economics
A1  - Dow, William H.
A1  - Godøy, Anna
A1  - Lowenstein, Christopher
A1  - Reich, Michael
SP  - e102372
EP  - e102372
VL  - 74
IS  - 
N2  - Do minimum wages and the earned income tax credit (EITC) mitigate rising "deaths of despair?" We leverage state variation in these policies over time to estimate event study and difference-in-differences models of deaths due to drug overdose, suicide, and alcohol-related causes. Our causal models find no significant effects on drug or alcohol-related mortality, but do find significant reductions in non-drug suicides. A 10 percent minimum wage increase reduces non-drug suicides among low-educated adults by 2.7 percent, and the comparable EITC figure is 3.0 percent. Placebo tests and event-study models support our causal research design. Increasing both policies by 10 percent would likely prevent a combined total of more than 700 suicides each year.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0167-6296
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2020.102372
ID  - ref1
ER  -