Mental health and employment: a bounding approach using panel data

Mark Bryan; Nigel Rice; Jennifer Roberts; Cristina Sechel

doi:10.1111/obes.12489

Mental health and employment: a bounding approach using panel data

Mark Bryan, Nigel Rice, Jennifer Roberts, Cristina Sechel

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The effect of mental health on employment is a key policy question, but reliable causal estimates are elusive. Exploiting panel data and extending recent techniques using selection on observables to provide information on selection along unobservables, we estimate that transitioning into poor mental health leads to a 1.6\% point reduction in the probability of employment; approximately 10% of the raw employment gap. Selection into mental health is almost entirely based on time-invariant characteristics, rendering fixed effects estimates unbiased in this context, meaning researchers no longer have to rely on the narrow local average treatment effects of most health/work IV studies.

Original language	English
Number of pages	34
Journal	Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
Early online date	5 Mar 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12489
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 5 Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Mental health, employment, fixed effects, Oster bounds, UKHLS

Access to Document

10.1111/obes.12489Licence: CC BY

Mental Health and Employment: A BoundingApproach Using Panel Data
©2022 The Authors.
Final published version, 329 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{440bbb34e2e04382a770a3f1114fabc1,

title = "Mental health and employment: a bounding approach using panel data",

abstract = "The effect of mental health on employment is a key policy question, but reliable causal estimates are elusive. Exploiting panel data and extending recent techniques using selection on observables to provide information on selection along unobservables, we estimate that transitioning into poor mental health leads to a 1.6\% point reduction in the probability of employment; approximately 10% of the raw employment gap. Selection into mental health is almost entirely based on time-invariant characteristics, rendering fixed effects estimates unbiased in this context, meaning researchers no longer have to rely on the narrow local average treatment effects of most health/work IV studies.",

keywords = "Mental health, employment, fixed effects, Oster bounds, UKHLS",

author = "Mark Bryan and Nigel Rice and Jennifer Roberts and Cristina Sechel",

note = "{\textcopyright}2022 The Authors.",

year = "2022",

month = mar,

day = "5",

doi = "10.1111/obes.12489",

language = "English",

journal = "Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics",

issn = "0305-9049",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Mental health and employment

T2 - a bounding approach using panel data

AU - Bryan, Mark

AU - Rice, Nigel

AU - Roberts, Jennifer

AU - Sechel, Cristina

PY - 2022/3/5

Y1 - 2022/3/5

N2 - The effect of mental health on employment is a key policy question, but reliable causal estimates are elusive. Exploiting panel data and extending recent techniques using selection on observables to provide information on selection along unobservables, we estimate that transitioning into poor mental health leads to a 1.6\% point reduction in the probability of employment; approximately 10% of the raw employment gap. Selection into mental health is almost entirely based on time-invariant characteristics, rendering fixed effects estimates unbiased in this context, meaning researchers no longer have to rely on the narrow local average treatment effects of most health/work IV studies.

AB - The effect of mental health on employment is a key policy question, but reliable causal estimates are elusive. Exploiting panel data and extending recent techniques using selection on observables to provide information on selection along unobservables, we estimate that transitioning into poor mental health leads to a 1.6\% point reduction in the probability of employment; approximately 10% of the raw employment gap. Selection into mental health is almost entirely based on time-invariant characteristics, rendering fixed effects estimates unbiased in this context, meaning researchers no longer have to rely on the narrow local average treatment effects of most health/work IV studies.

KW - Mental health, employment, fixed effects, Oster bounds, UKHLS

U2 - 10.1111/obes.12489

DO - 10.1111/obes.12489

M3 - Article

SN - 0305-9049

JO - Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

JF - Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

ER -