Adolescents’ Mental Health and Human Capital: The Role of Socioeconomic Rank

Michaela Paffenholz

No 10248, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: I provide evidence on the causal effects of a student’s relative socioeconomic status during high school on their mental health and human capital development. Leveraging data from representative US high schools, I utilize between-cohort differences in the distributions of socioeconomic status within schools in a linear fixed effects model to identify a causal rank effect. I find that a higher rank during high school improves a student’s depression scores, cognitive ability, self-esteem and popularity. The rank effects are persistent with long-lasting consequences for adult depression and college attainment. Additional analyses emphasize the role of inequality in exacerbating these rank effects.

Keywords: rank; mental health; higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I23 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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