The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on State Suicide Rates: Revisited

This paper revisits the purported impact of socioeconomic and social environment factors on annual, U.S. state-level suicide rates. Special attention is paid to the right-hand-side linking covariates directly to Durkheim's (1897/1951) significant contributions to established ecological suicide research. Results from a Hausman-Taylor panel specification lend little support to Durkheim's social integration/regulation hypothesis that aggregate social forces matter in explaining variations in regional suicide rates. Data from 1990-2019 and the advanced empirical method support the mounting sentiment of an abiding ecological fallacy plaguing suicidology.