Year: 2023 Source: Journal of Applied Economics. (2023). 26(1), 2212348. DOI: 10.1080/15140326.2023.2212348 SIEC No: 20231265
This note investigates the empirical pattern of suicides across Italy over the last 15 years. Typically, a country shares similar basic cultural and social macro-features. Yet in Italy there are marked variations across the regions such that it provides a useful setting to examine the economic factors that influence suicidality. The results align with some earlier work positing an N-shaped Kuznets curve linking income and the suicide rate. Female participation in the labour market emerges as a robust explanatory factor for male and female suicide rates.