The Economics of Suicide, Revisited

Abstract

attempts are more likely when future income may be positively affected by the attempt, conditional on survival. Data from the National Comorbidity Survey show that ex post, individuals who made a suicide attempt had higher incomes than peers who seriously considered suicide but who never made a suicide attempt. Moreover, those who reported making the most serious attempts experienced the largest subsequent effects on income. Economists have contributed important insights into the motivations underlying suicidal behavior. In particular, economists have formalized the notion that utility maximization plays a role in shaping suicidal behavior and have found empirical evidence suggesting that suicide rates respond to economic factors in ways predicted by economic theory. At the very least, economists have established that suicide is not an act arising purely from social isolation or mental illness. Rather, even for this most drastic of behavioral choices, at some level individuals respond to the same types of incentives that govern other aspects of their economic and social lives.