TY  - JOUR
AU  - Evans,William N.
AU  - Moore,Timothy J.
TI  - Liquidity, Activity, Mortality
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15310
PY  - 2009
Y2  - September 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15310
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15310.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
William N. Evans
Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics
Department of Economics and Econometrics
447 Flanner Hall
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Tel: 574-631-7039
E-Mail: wevans1@nd.edu

Timothy J. Moore
Department of Economics
George Washington University
2115 G Street NW, Monroe Hall Room 302
Washington, DC 20052
Tel: 202/994-6101
Fax: 202/994-6150
E-Mail: tim_moore@gwu.edu
AB  - We document a within-month mortality cycle where deaths decline before the 1st day of the month and then spike after the 1st.  This cycle is present across a wide variety of causes and demographic groups.  A similar cycle exists for a range of activities, suggesting the mortality cycle may be due to short-term variation in levels of activity.  We provide evidence that the within-month activity cycle is generated by liquidity.  Our results suggest a causal pathway whereby liquidity problems reduce activity, which in turn reduces mortality.  These relationships help explain the pro-cyclic nature of mortality.
ER  -