Commentary: Mortality increases during economic upturns

Studies correcting the problems often fail to replicate his findings.11–14 With the exception of Brenner’s work, most (but not all) of the time series evidence suggests that economic downturns reduce mortality. Research undertaken as early as the 1920s by Ogburn and Thomas15 and Thomas,16 using US and UK data from the late 19th and early 20th century, identifies a posi-tive correlation between macroeconomic activity and total mortality, as well as deaths from several specific causes (with suicides the exception). Eyer obtains a similar finding using US data from 1870 to 1975.17 Though not conclusive, these analyses present a serious challenge to Brenner’s hypothesis and even he has noted that mortality tends to decrease in periods of rising unemployment (p. 232).18 It is presumably for these reasons that Brenner’s18 late