Journal of Health Economics 22 (2003) 505–518 A note on the effect of unemployment on mortality Ulf-G. Gerdtham a,b,∗ , Magnus Johannesson c a Department of Community Medicine, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, SE-205 02 Malmö, Sweden b Lund University Centre for Health Economics (LUCHE), Lund University, Box 705, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden c Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden Received 13 March 2002; received in revised form 10 October 2002; accepted 4 December 2002 Abstract In this note we test if unemployment has an effect on mortality using a large individual level data set of nearly 30,000 individuals in Sweden aged 20–64 years followed-up for 10–17 years. We follow individuals over time that are initially in the same health state, but differ with respect to whether they are employed or unemployed (controlling also for a number of individual characteristics that may affect the depreciation of health over time). Unemployment significantly increases the risk of being dead at the end of follow-up by nearly 50% (from 5.36 to 7.83%). In an analysis of cause-specific mortality, we find that unemployment significantly increases the risk of suicides and the risk of dying from “other diseases” (all diseases except cancer and cardiovascular), but has no significant effect on cancer mortality, cardiovascular mortality or deaths due to “other external causes” (motor vehicle accidents, accidents and homicides). © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: I12; J60 Keywords: Unemployment; Mortality; Health 1. Introduction High unemployment is a central concern in many economies and it is important to assess how individuals are affected by unemployment. Unemployment typically involves an in- come loss for the individual, and several studies also suggest that it leads to a reduction in happiness and general well-being (Clark and Oswald, 1994; Winkelmann and Winkelmann, 1998; Theodossiou, 1998). It has furthermore been argued that unemployment may be a health hazard, and many studies in the public health field have shown that unemployed ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +46-40-33-1969; fax: +46-40-33-6215. E-mail addresses: ulf.gerdtham@smi.mas.lu.se (U.-G. Gerdtham), hemj@hhs.se (M. Johannesson). 0167-6296/03/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0167-6296(03)00004-3