Crecimiento y evolución económica-espacial de los suicidios en Brasil: Durkhein en la perspectiva de la econometría espacial

Abstract

In Brazil, there has been a significant increase in the growth and evolution of suicides in states such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. However, little attention has been paid to research on suicide in other Brazilian states, especially in the North and Northeast. Suicide in Brazil is a typical case of public health, but also a problem of economic and social order. Thus, the main objective of this article is to evaluate the determinant factors - economic, social and public health - of the suicide rate in the federal states of Brazil between the years 1980-2010. For this, Durkheim's Suicide Theory will be adopted from the statistical-econometric point of view of spatial econometrics, since it allows to evaluate the spatial dependence relation between the suicide rates of the Brazilian neighboring states. The main conclusion is that there is an association between the per capita income and the suicide rate of the Brazilian states. However, there is an inverse relationship so that if per capita income increases the tendency is to decrease suicide rate. Therefore, the increase in the number of suicide in Brazil must be understood as a public, social and, fundamentally, economic health problem.