The different impacts of socio-economic factors on suicide between males and females

Abstract

I used the national panel data of Japan to investigate the determinants of suicide. The major findings are twofold. First, the social capital that enhances community integration had a greater effect on the suicide of females than that of males. This is probably because females are less likely to have full-time jobs and thus have more spare time, leading them to seek social involvement in their neighbourhoods and participate in community activities. Second, divorce causes the propensity to commit suicide among males to become about two times higher than that among females because of the compensation costs that males are more likely to pay to females.

Notes

¹A number of works in the field of economics attempt to analyse suicide (e.g. Hamermesh, 1974; Yang and Lester, 1995; Huang, 1996; Viren, 1996; Chuang and Huang, 1997; Jungeilges and Kirchgassner, 2002; Marcotte, 2003; Rodríguez, 2005).

²It was observed in Japan that social capital has an important role in the socio-economic behaviour (Yamamura, 2008a –d).