Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
19th International Conference of MEEA, İstanbul, Türkiye, 9 - 11 Ekim 2020
In his seminal work, published more than a century
ago, Durkheim (1897) argued that the suicide rate in a society is determined by
social regulation and social integration. Social regulation refers to the level
to which an individual’s life is governed by traditions and norms. Social integration is expressed as
relationships that ensure loyalty and commitment to the moral norms of the
society to which the individual feels connected. Thus, as social integration
increases among the individuals who make up the society, the sense of
commitment increases. Considering the regulatory and integration features of
the marriage institution, divorce can be taken as an indicator of social
isolation in Durkheim's analysis (Stack 1990). Hamermesh and Soss (1974)
develops another theoretical framework for the study of suicide through
economic channels. They argue that individual will commit suicide when the
total remaining discounted lifetime utility reaches zero or falls under a
particular value of death. In this regard, a negative shock, such as divorce,
may decrease the expected utility and make committing suicide an optimal
decision. In Durkheim’s perspective, divorce disintegrates the ties of the
individual to the family/society and increases the probability of suicide.
Based on the theory of social integration
(Durkheim, 1897) and lifetime utility maximization (Hamermesh
and Soss, 1974), a vast body of research has
emerged in economics interested in suicide. For
instance, Ross et al. (2012) argue that divorce is not significantly related to
suicide in the US. In contrast, Minoiu and Andres (2008) find positive
association between divorce and suicide across US regions. Moreover, their
results indicate that the impact of divorce on suicide is higher for females
than males. Considering Japan, Yamamura (2010) shows that divorce is positively
related to the suicide rate, with a larger effect on males than females. Two
studies, Detotto and Sterzi (2013) and Bussu et al. (2013) argue that divorce
has insignificant effect on suicide in Italy. In Canada, Jalles and Andresen
(2015) find no evidence of any relationship between divorce and suicide. In a
similar vein, Huikari and Korhonen (2016) suggest that divorce is
insignificantly related to suicide in Finland during 1991-2011.
The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the
relationship between divorce and suicide in Turkey. To that end, we employ
regional data at the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS)-3
level for the period 2008-2017. Employing two-way fixed effects panel data
analysis, we find that divorce has statistically significant positive effect on
suicide. Moreover, this effect differs across genders, age groups, and
education levels. The effect of divorce on suicide rate is greater for males
than females. Further, we find that the coefficient estimate of divorce on
suicide is smaller for the prime working age group. Although there seems to be
no significant relationship between economic indicators and suicide, we find
that divorce is the channel though which income and unemployment affect
suicide. Accordingly, the impact of divorce on suicide is disproportionally
greater in provinces with lower income per capita and higher unemployment rate.
In addition, we argue that divorce increases skilled male suicide rate and
unskilled female rate, suggesting the importance of education. Finally, results show that human capital is
negatively related to male suicide, whereas there exists a positive
relationship between population density and female suicide in Turkey.