🌐ENGLISH

東北大学経済学研究科 博士課程前期

東北大学経済学研究科 教授

This study examines the association between pollen exposure and monthly suicide mortality in Japan. It combines prefecture-level daily pollen counts with monthly suicide mortality data for 2009-2020 and estimates panel models with prefecture and year-by-month fixed effects. The estimates indicate that additional high-pollen days are positively associated with overall suicide mortality. The association is statistically significant in several specifications for women, although the female-specific estimates are sensitive to model specification and the difference between women and men is not directly tested. Results from the pollen-season sample support the main overall association. Because the estimated relationship is not monotonic across pollen categories and the age-specific analysis entails multiple testing, the heterogeneity and mechanism results should be viewed as exploratory.(JEL Classification: I12, I18, Q51, Q54)