Work Loss and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bernt Bratsberg (), Anna Godøy (), Rannveig Kaldager Hart (), Oddbjørn Raaum, Bjørn-Atle Reme () and Jonathan Wörn ()
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Bernt Bratsberg: Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research
Anna Godøy: University of Oslo
Rannveig Kaldager Hart: Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Bjørn-Atle Reme: Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Jonathan Wörn: Norwegian Institute of Public Health

No 15913, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the impact of work loss on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Combining data on work loss and health care consultations from comprehensive individual-level register data, we define groups of employees delineated by industry, region, age, and gender. With these groups, we use a difference-in-differences framework to document significantly increased rates of consultations for psychological conditions among workers with higher exposure to work loss. The increases, and their persistence, were markedly higher for consultations in specialist (vs. primary) care, indicating that the deterioration of mental health was more than a widespread increase in lighter symptoms. Overall, our findings suggest that the economic disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the mental health of workers most exposed to loss of work.

Keywords: mental health; job loss; work loss; layoffs; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I14 I18 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lab
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Published - published in: BMC Public Health, 2023, 23, 1447

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