Replication data for: Declines in GDP predict changes in all-cause, cardiovascular and suicide mortality.

The relationship between economic crises and health is a contentious topic, with far-reaching implications for policy and public health. In this paper we first replicate the findings of an influential report on economic crises and health (Stuckler, Basu, Suhrcke, Coutts, & McKee, 2009). We then show that unemployment is both conceptually limited as a measure of the “economic crises” of interest, as well as analytically problematic due to data missingness and quality. We demonstrate the utility of a more comprehensive and reliably recorded measure of economic crises based on annual declines in per capita GDP. Our models capture the critical findings of earlier research (such as the association between economic crisis and suicide), while revealing additional effec ts of recessions on health, such as increased cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.