Seminar
The Social Cost of Suicide
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Series
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Speaker(s)Petra Persson (Stanford University, United States)
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FieldEmpirical Microeconomics
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LocationTinbergen Institute, Roeterseiland Campus, E1.17
Amsterdam -
Date and time
October 06, 2026
16:00 - 17:00
Abstract
Suicide is a leading cause of death, yet its costs are conventionally counted as if they end with the person who dies. We use population-wide Swedish administrative data to provide quasi-experimental estimates of the costs that a suicide imposes on the surrounding social network. A suicide worsens relatives' mental health, reduces their earnings, and raises their mortality. Strikingly, it also transmits suicide itself, in every direction we measure---from children to parents, from parents to children, and across siblings, partners, and co-workers. Aggregating across the network, every suicide causes additional deaths among those left behind, so an accounting that counts only the decedent understates the mortality cost of suicide and the benefits of prevention. Joint paper with Marcella Alsan, Marissa Hindelang, and Ebonya Washington. \