There has been much interest recently in the relationship between economic conditions and mortality, with some studies showing that mortality is pro-cyclical, while others find the opposite. Some suggest that the aggregation level of analysis (e.g. individual vs. regional) matters. We use both individual and aggregated data on a sample of 20–64 year-old Swedish men from 1993 to 2007. Our results show that the association between the business cycle and mortality does not depend on the level of analysis: the sign and magnitude of the parameter estimates are similar at the individual level and the aggregate (county) level; both showing pro-cyclical mortality.
Authors
Research Fellow University of Bristol
Stephanie is a Reader in Economics at the University of Bristol and an Endowed Professor of Health Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Maarten Lindeboom
Gerald van den Berg
Ulf Gerdtham
Johannes Lissdaniels
Jan Sundquist
Kristina Sundquist
Journal article details
- Publisher
- Journal of Health Economics
- Issue
- September 2017
Suggested citation
Gerdtham, U et al. (2017). 'Mortality and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Individual and Aggregated Data' (2017)
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