Crop-damaging temperatures increase suicide rates in India

More than three quarters of the world's suicides occur in developing countries, yet little is known about the drivers of suicidal behavior in poor populations. I study India, where one fifth of global suicides occur and suicide rates have doubled since 1980. Using nationally comprehensive panel...

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Vydáno v:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Ročník 114; číslo 33; s. 8746
Hlavní autor: Carleton, Tamma A
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: United States 15.08.2017
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ISSN:1091-6490, 1091-6490
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Shrnutí:More than three quarters of the world's suicides occur in developing countries, yet little is known about the drivers of suicidal behavior in poor populations. I study India, where one fifth of global suicides occur and suicide rates have doubled since 1980. Using nationally comprehensive panel data over 47 y, I demonstrate that fluctuations in climate, particularly temperature, significantly influence suicide rates. For temperatures above 20 °C, a 1 °C increase in a single day's temperature causes ∼70 suicides, on average. This effect occurs only during India's agricultural growing season, when heat also lowers crop yields. I find no evidence that acclimatization, rising incomes, or other unobserved drivers of adaptation are occurring. I estimate that warming over the last 30 y is responsible for 59,300 suicides in India, accounting for 6.8% of the total upward trend. These results deliver large-scale quantitative evidence linking climate and agricultural income to self-harm in a developing country.
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ISSN:1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1701354114