Looking at the short-term association between unemployment rate and mortality, we found that mortality attributable to accidents is, by far, the indicator most affected, but in a positive way! We found that this indicator is strongly pro-cyclical, i.e. it decreases when unemployment surges. On the other side, it is worth mentioning the harmful effect of the recession on mortality due to suicides. We found that these results are more marked with low levels of social protection.

Recently you have explored more in depth the health impacts of fiscal austerity and tax policies. What are the main findings?

Our main results partly confirm the notion of adverse health effects resulting from austerity: austerity regimes are associated with an increase in all-cause mortality and some specific mortality rates. However, where there is a mortality increasing effect of austerity, that effect is partly compensated by a mortality decreasing effect of recessions, with the exception of suicides that appear to receive a double "boost" from both austerity and recessions.

The relation between macro-economics and health seems intuitive, but difficult to assess. Could you tell us more about your research approach to study these issues?

We use unemployment rate as a proxy of macroeconomic shocks, and overall and cause-specific mortality as health indicators. We look at the association between the two with and without state dependency (i.e. considering mortality as a function of its past value). Despite the considerable body of literature devoted to this subject, several limitations should be borne in mind. To mention only two: most of the literature uses mortality, a strong and easily measurable indicator, as proxy for health. Second, many of studies look only at the transitory effect of the business cycle on health, but from a policy point of view it would surely also be relevant to examine the long term consequences.

Would you say that the current macro-economic policies in Europe will have impacts on health inequalities?

Yes, indeed. What we have found, together with colleagues in Barcelona, is that for Spain socioeconomic inequalities in health and health behaviour have intensified, at least when it comes to dietary outcomes, during the Great Recession. The distributional effect on other health domains may be a lot more nuanced though. As for the association between unemployment rate and health, we found that while recession can adversely affect some health outcomes, what matters is how policymakers respond to it. If the politicians respond to hardship with severe cuts, the effects can be even more harmful.

What is your balance of having been involved in this European research project?

Very positive. Being involved in the SOPHIE Project gave me the opportunity to understand the difficulties of coordinating several teams, besides the opportunity to develop a research network.