Mentally Spent: Credit Conditions and Mental Health

Qing Hu, Ross Levine (), Chen Lin and Mingzhu Tai

No 25584, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In light of the human suffering and economic costs associated with mental illness, we provide the first assessment of whether local credit conditions shape the incidence of mental depression. Using several empirical strategies, we discover that bank regulatory reforms that improved local credit conditions reduced mental depression among low-income households and the impact was largest in counties dominated by bank-dependent firms. On the mechanisms, we find that the regulatory reforms boosted employment, income, and mental health among low-income individuals in bank-dependent counties, but the regulatory reforms did not increase borrowing by these individuals.

JEL-codes: D14 G21 I1 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban and nep-hea
Note: CF EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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