Bounding the causal effect of unemployment on mental health: Nonparametric evidence from four countries

Health Economics
Kamila Cygan-RehmMichael Oberfichtner

Abstract

An important, yet unsettled, question in public health policy is the extent to which unemployment causally impacts mental health. The recent literature yields varying findings, which are likely due to differences in data, methods, samples, and institutional settings. Taking a more general approach, we provide comparable evidence for four countries with different institutional settings-Australia, Germany, the UK, and the United States-using a nonparametric bounds analysis. Relying on fairly weak and partially testable assumptions, our paper shows that unemployment has a significant negative effect on mental health in all countries. Our results rule out effects larger than a quarter of a standard deviation for Germany and half a standard deviation for the Anglo-Saxon countries. The effect is significant for both men and women and materialises already for short periods of unemployment. Public policy should hence focus on early prevention of mental health problems among the unemployed.

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Citations

Dec 11, 2019·Health Economics·Jakob Everding, Jan Marcus
Oct 19, 2019·European Journal of Public Health·Paula AcevedoPilar Montero
Dec 4, 2019·BMC Public Health·Ingrid PetersDavid Perkins
Feb 28, 2019·Journal of Mental Health·Miguel FariaMarta Branco
Feb 24, 2018·Scandinavian Journal of Public Health·Lauri SääksvuoriIsmo Linnosmaa
Apr 4, 2021·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Israel Escudero-CastilloAna Rodriguez-Alvarez
Apr 30, 2021·Journal of Public Health·C Zilidis, N V Angelopoulos
Jun 19, 2021·Health Economics·Anthony Lepinteur
Jul 17, 2021·Health Economics·Kadir AtalayDavid Ubilava

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