Daily Events

We invite CERGE-EI students to a career lunch with representatives of the International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC), an independent and apolitical not-for-profit think tank that specialises in sustainable finance. 

Prof. Martin Halla

Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria

Join online
Meeting number: 2744 214 6069
Meeting password: 775863

Authors: Martin Halla and Bernhard Schmidpeter

Abstract: Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide and a critical public health concern. We examine the hypothesis of suicide contagion within the workplace, investigating whether exposure to a coworker’s suicide increases an individual’s suicide risk. Using high-quality administrative data from Austria and an event study approach, we compare approximately 150,000 workers exposed to a coworker’s suicide with a matched group exposed to a “placebo suicide.” We find a significant increase in suicide risk for exposed individuals, with a cumulative treatment effect of 0.04 percentage points (33.3 percent) over a 20-year post-event period. Exposed individuals who also die by suicide are more likely to use the same method as their deceased coworker, strongly suggesting a causal link. Two placebo tests bolster this interpretation: workers who left the firm before the suicide and those exposed to a coworker’s fatal car accident do not show an elevated suicide risk.

Keywords: Suicide, workplace, contagion hypothesis, Werther-effect, mental health.
JEL Classification: I10, I12, I18, D81, J10.

Full Text: Werther at Work: Intra-firm Spillovers of Suicides

This lecture is open to researchers, policymakers, students, and anyone interested in the fields of economic development and fiscal policy.

Key Topics Include:
- Do wealth taxes effectively reduce inequality?
- How do asset prices respond to tax changes?
- Who truly benefits from wealth taxation?

Organized by:
The Institute of Public Policy and Administration (IPPA), Graduate School of Development (GSD), in partnership with the CERGE-EI Foundation and Narxoz University.

To secure your spot, please register here: https://forms.office.com/r/v9T9SS6wjF

We are excited to invite our alumni to upcoming meet-ups in Astana and Almaty! Join us for a public lecture by CERGE-EI Director Marek Kapička, followed by an informal gathering to reconnect and catch up.

Astana – Thursday, April 3
Public Lecture at Maqsut Narikbayev University (3:30 PM, Room 332)
Meet-up nearby starting around 5:00 PM

Almaty – Monday, April 7
Public Lecture at Narxoz University (3:30 PM, Room 109)
Meet-up nearby starting around 5:00 PM

We look forward to seeing you there!