Second, the “hazards” explanation predicts, following elevated unemployment, fewer traffic-related and work-related accidents as well as reduced exposure to work-related hazards ( Gerdtham and Ruhm 2006). First, the “income effect” explanation assumes that a fall in family income reduces consumption of health-damaging goods (e.g., alcohol, Khan et al., 2002). Scholars have advanced several explanations for gains in life expectancy during economic downturns such as the Great Depression. Our goal is to refine our understanding of mortality change specifically during the Great Depression, the largest recession in the USA since 1900. However, there is increasing evidence for procyclical relation between mortality and the economy (e.g., Ruhm, 2000 Angelini and Mierau, 2014 Haaland and Telle, 2015 Ruhm, 2015 Sameem and Sylwester, 2017 Tapia Granados and Ionides, 2017 van den Berg et al., 2017). What is more, it contradicts prior research (albeit for cause-specific mortality), which found a countercyclical relationship between the economy and heart disease death rates during this time period ( Brenner 1971). Given that life expectancy is often regarded as a proxy for social conditions (e.g., Lieberson, 1980 Ewbank, 1987), this is surprising. This occurred despite drops in the gross domestic product (GDP) and a rising unemployment rate.

2007), and life expectancy increased ( Tapia Granados and Diez Roux 2009). During the Great Depression (1930–1933), both infant and non-infant death rates declined in the USA ( Fishback et al.

Life expectancy in us 1920