Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health

Dante Donati, Ruben Durante (), Francesco Sobbrio () and Dijana Zejcirovic ()
Additional contact information
Ruben Durante: Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Francesco Sobbrio: University of Rome Tor Vergata
Dijana Zejcirovic: University of Vienna

No 15202, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: How does the internet affect young people's mental health? We study this question in the context of Italy using administrative data on the universe of cases of mental disorders diagnosed in Italian hospitals between 2001 and 2013, which we combine with information on the availability of highspeed internet at the municipal level. Our identification strategy exploits differences in the proximity of municipalities to the pre-existing voice telecommunication infrastructure, which was previously irrelevant but became salient after the advent of the internet. We find that access to high-speed internet has a significant positive effect on the incidence of mental disorders for young cohorts but not for older ones. In particular, internet access leads to an increase in diagnoses of depression, anxiety, drug abuse, and personality disorders - for both males and females - and of eating and sleep disorders - for females only. We find similar results for urgent and compulsory hospitalizations and self-harm episodes. These results suggest that the effect of broadband is driven by a rise in the underlying prevalence of mental disorders and not merely by increased awareness about these pathologies.

Keywords: mental health; internet; ADSL; 3G (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I31 L82 L86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2022-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-ict
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health (2022)
Working Paper: Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health (2022)
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