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Fidel Gonzalez, Troy Quast and Matias Fontenla
 
''A City-Level Analysis of Mortality and the Business Cycle across Racial and Ethnic Groups''
( 2012, Vol. 32 No.3 )
 
 
This paper employs U.S. metropolitan data to investigate the relationship between mortality rate and the business cycle. We utilize mortality and employment data that are specific to a given city, year and race/ethnic group. The analysis improves upon the existing literature by analyzing the relationship for specific racial and ethnic groups and by allowing the relationship to vary according to the level of economic activity in that metropolitan area. We find that while overall mortality is procyclical at the median value of the employment rate, it is countercyclical at lower values and more strongly procyclical at higher values. Our estimates also suggest that while this pattern is present for whites and Hispanics, there is no discernible relationship between mortality and the employment rate for blacks. Our analysis of specific causes of death suggest additional differences across racial and ethnic groups
 
 
Keywords: Business Cycle, Mortality, Race, Ethnicity, MSA
JEL: I1 - Health: General
 
Manuscript Received : Jun 05 2012 Manuscript Accepted : Sep 09 2012

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