I had assumed so until I looked into it
Turns out there is little evidence supporting a causal link, some evidence suggesting the opposite, and even more suggesting “it depends”
THREAD
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28625812/
nature.com/articles/d4158…
“After several years of severe economic stress, the gross death rate has attained the lowest level on record,” wrote Edgar Sydenstricker, a social epidemiologist with the US Public Health Service, in 1933
“There has been a lot of intellectual infighting ... Now, the question is how can we protect people who are put in harm’s way by these crises. What choices do we have?”
But the main finding — that it’s our response to crises which matters most — is similar to other fields
Asian nations, particularly South Korea, responded aggressively & surgically and were able to keep their societies functioning at high levels, in contrast to most Western nations
We should correct ourselves and each other when we make catastrophic and fatalistic predictions
This goes for conservatives and liberals
On the other, it’s not inevitable that the recession be very large, long-lasting, or more deadly than the boom times were