Why Are Recessions Good for Your Health?

The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of the mechanisms that are most likely to contribute to the procyclical relationship between macroeconomic conditions and mortality rates. In particular, it aims to distinguish between health changes resulting from changes in an individual's own work and health behaviors and health changes that are related to "externalities" associated with the business cycle. While some of these possibilities have been explored in earlier work, this study brings additional light to bear on the question by focusing on more detailed mortality rate decompositions by age, sex, race, and cause of death, and by investigating the relationship between a particular demographic group's mortality and the unemployment rate of that group relative to the unemployment rates of other demographic groups.