Arbeitspapier

Social Assistance and Mental Health: Evidence from Longitudinal Data on Pharmaceutical Consumption

This paper examines the short-term effect between take-up of Social Assistance Benefit (SAB) and mental health. Using a panel dataset including rich yearly register data on e.g. income, income sources, unemployment and types of pharmaceutical consumption for over 140,000 Swedes 2006-2012, we quantify the importance of the psychosocial dimensions (e.g. shame and guilt) of the socioeconomic status – mental health nexus. Our main independent variable is an indicator for SAB, which is the means-tested last-resort option for individuals with no other means to cover necessary living expenses, received by six per cent of all Swedish households annually. Mental ill-health is measured by data on prescribed antidepressants, anxiolytics, or hypnotics. While SAB strongly associates with psychopharmaca consumption in a cross-section of observations, the association largely disappear once we introduce individual fixed effects. These results indicate that other mechanisms than shame or guilt related to the SAB experience are more important for mental health in the short term.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: Working Paper ; No. 2018:2

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Health Behavior
Health and Inequality
Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
Thema
mental health
socio-economic status
social assistance
shame
guilt
individual fixed effect

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Dackehag, Margareta
Ellegård, Lina Maria
Gerdtham, Ulf-G.
Nilsson, Therese
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Lund University, School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics
(wo)
Lund
(wann)
2018

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
20.09.2024, 08:22 MESZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Dackehag, Margareta
  • Ellegård, Lina Maria
  • Gerdtham, Ulf-G.
  • Nilsson, Therese
  • Lund University, School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics

Entstanden

  • 2018

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